


After

by epcot97



Series: What Came Before He Knew Her [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adventure & Romance, F/M, Fluff, Fox Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Turtle Nino Lahiffe | Carapace
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26564563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epcot97/pseuds/epcot97
Summary: With Hawkmoth defeated and Paris – for the moment – no longer in need of superhero services, Chat Noir and Ladybug start to wonder if they should hang up their domino masks and move on with their lives.  After all, Adrien now has a business empire to run (even if he is sixteen) and could use a good head designer (even if she’s also sixteen).  But when an unexpected break-in occurs at the deserted Agreste Manor, the duo quickly realize evil is never all that far away.(Updates Tuesdays)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: What Came Before He Knew Her [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1480151
Comments: 32
Kudos: 47





	1. Tying Up Loose Ends

**Author's Note:**

> **Historian’s Note** :  
> This story picks up immediately after the events depicted in _What Came Before He Knew Her_ ; our characters exist in a grey period somewhere in Season Three of _Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir_. While it’s not strictly necessary to have read _WCBHKH_ (it is eighty chapters, after all), you may find it helpful to read that prior to tackling _After_. (Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you.)
> 
>  **Author's Note** : _To everyone joining me on another fun MLB journey, welcome! Some of you have been with me for a while and I’m grateful to have your continued patronage; for those new to the party, I’m excited you’ve decided to join me for another adventure of our favorite Parisian superheroes. As I get close to my two-year anniversary of writing for this fandom, I continue to be amazed by the warm and thoughtful community I am privileged to have become a part of._
> 
>  _Sadly, I do not own the rights to_ Miraculous _or any of the characters. I keep hoping to become part of their writer’s room, but until that happens, this seems to be as close as I am gonna get…_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Worried about overstaying his welcome, Adrien ponders leaving the relative comfort of the Bakery and returning to the mansion. Ladybug’s not entirely sure she agrees with his flawed logic, and digs deeper to see what his true motivations are._

“Not much new to report,” the image said on my baton. Framed by a dark mop of hair, the face of my superhero friend from across the pond frowned. “Mister Stark is actually quite stumped – I’ve never seen him so upset before.”

I smiled slightly, though in truth there wasn’t a whole lot funny about the particular problem my friend’s mentor was tackling. Trying to keep the mood light, though, I cocked my wild mane slightly. “Glad to have thrown him a curveball, I guess.”

His eyes widened. “Oh – Chat, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that—”

“I know,” I nodded. “No harm, no foul.” Deciding it was time to change subjects, I narrowed my masked eyes. “Did I hear correctly that you were seen web slinging around New York? Against doctor’s orders?”

“Wha--?” Peter Parker had the good sense to look embarrassed as he snuck closer to his camera. “Who told you about _that_?” he whispered. “I thought I’d been off of everyone’s radar.”

“One of our team members keeps tabs on our colleagues back in New York,” I replied, thinking about Rena’s love for superheroes. “It’s kind of a pet project of hers. And you are all over the blogs.”

Peter swore. “Lovely. If Fury sees it, I’m done for another month, easy.” He slumped back a bit, and the camera had to adjust to keep him in frame. “Man, I can’t take being cooped up here in my aunt’s apartment any longer. I need to get out!”

“Understandable,” I laughed. “But you don’t have the same quick-healing abilities we do. When we shipped you back to New York, you still had a fractured rib or two.”

“That was _six weeks_ ago!” Peter cried. “I feel—”

“Don’t push it,” I interrupted. “If you re-injure anything, you won’t be able to visit this summer.”

That gave my friend pause. “Good point,” he sighed, for more than anything, he’d been hoping to spend his school vacation taking photos around Paris and hanging with the only other superhero teenagers he knew. “How’s Ladybug?” he asked.

“Good,” I smiled. “Though it’s been rather quiet since Hawkmoth shuffled off to prison.”

“Admit it. You’re enjoying the one-on-one kitty time.”

I tilted my head away from the camera and gave him my sly smile. “A gentlecat never purrs and tells.”

“Of course,” he laughed before suddenly looking away. “Crud, here comes Aunt May. I’m supposed to be getting ready for school.”

“No probs. I’ll call you tomorrow,” I replied as I waved a paw at his fading image.

Snapping my baton closed, I tapped it against my open paw thoughtfully. In the weeks since Peter had regained consciousness and then, ultimately, been sent back to New York to recover more fully, much had changed in Paris. Looking out across the very late evening lights of Paris, I thought about the prison on the edge of the city where my father and Nathalie had quietly begun their life-plus-twenty sentences; both had wisely pled to everything, preventing the public spectacle of a trial – and, fortunately, the need for my alter-ego to appear in public as a witness. The citizenry as a whole seemed to have stepped back and taken a deep breath, too, for after the years of near-daily akuma attacks, their sudden cessation seemed surreal. Gradually, though, with the help of Chat Noir and Ladybug, life had begun to resemble what it once had, pre-Hawkmoth.

Oddly, the two of us were having the harder time adjusting; without a supervillain around, our nightly patrols were somewhat anticlimactic, though we did appear to be on top of missing pets and the random attempted armed robbery. The Parisian crime rate had never been lower, especially when it became apparent the Heroes of Paris could appear and thwart an otherwise carefully planned bank heist. 

Funny thing, magic.

Leaning back against the cold tiles of the angled roof I’d chosen to for my daily (well, nightly, depending on the time zone you were working from) check-in chat with Spider-Man, I mused on other changes. Without having to constantly work ahead in case of an all-night akuma, school had become a bit less hectic and whole lot more fun. Contrary to my fears, I’d not become a pariah by dint of my association with Gabriel – in fact, my schoolmates had been immensely understanding and supportive, save for Lila of course. We never really knew what she was thinking other than it was uniformly bad for all of us.

Sliding sideways a little, I could just make out an edge of the Eiffel Tower, partially lit and looking as elegant as always. To be honest, as nice as it was not seeing the akuma-of-the-week take it out over and over again, I was starting to have my doubts that Paris needed me any longer. Weeks earlier, Ladybug had reminded me that there would _always_ be someone sitting in the villain seat, and we would be there, ready to meet them. I knew in my heart she wasn’t wrong – a visit from future Bunnix earlier in the year had confirmed such a thing would happen, actually – but it was feeling more and more like we were just going through the motions. Much as the modelling I continued to do, it was something expected – a duty we were fulfilling, even if it wasn’t perhaps strictly necessary any longer.

I snorted a bit on that thought, for actually the modelling may not have been the best example. As much as I truly detested the work, it was essentially keeping the business empire I now appeared to be in charge of afloat. I wasn’t technically running things on a day-to-day basis, for as it turned out, Gabriel had built quite a staff to actually _manage_ things; that had allowed him time to focus on designing the next season of clothing – or, as I reminded myself cynically, upend Paris as Hawkmoth looking for the Cat and Bug Miraculous. I sat in board meetings a few times a month, though, thankful I’d paid attention to the financial training my father had insisted on so I could surprise the board with thoughtful questions about the bottom line.

Financially, I was secure. Lawyers from House of Gabriel had been right behind the authorities after they’d carted off Hawkmoth, message in hand that there was a clause transferring the entire Gabriel fortune to me should he become indisposed for any number of reasons – like, say, going to prison. All if it was held in a trust until I turned twenty-five, but regular stipends of an amount that had Marinette swooning would be made to a newly opened personal account. That last part had Director Fury’s fingerprints all over it, as he’d promised to ensure I’d be free to live as I chose before he spirited my mother away to New York.

Or what was left of her.

Thoughts of her in that glass casket were interrupted when my feline ears pivoted in the direction of a familiar whisper on the wind; smiling, I flipped to my side and pulled my tail into my hand, twirling it as Ladybug appeared on the horizon. While I wasn’t upset to see her, it was a not-so-subtle rebuke for staying up well beyond all reason on a school night. Still, I smiled as her lithe form gracefully landed beside me.

“Kitty,” she smiled. “It’s not a full moon, is it?”

I rolled my eyes. “I am not _that_ much of a cat—”

There was no way to finish my sentence, for Ladybug had quickly moved a hand behind a feline ear and started to scratch. Though I knew was she was about, my feline impulses kicked in and before I could stop, I was leaning into her, eyes closed while blissfully purring.

“You were saying?” Ladybug whispered softly into an ear.

“Not… fair,” I sighed as I leaned further into her hand.

“I know,” she laughed. “Come home, Chat. We have to be at school in less than six hours.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Not without a lot of coffee.”

“True.” I leaned toward her a bit more. “Good thing I know where I can get some.”

“Chat does not live on caffeine alone.”

“No, but it helps.” 

I let the purring fill the silence for a few moments, relishing in the relaxed state Ladybug could induce in me with such a simple gesture. There was no question I was seeing more and more feline characteristics in myself the longer I remained Chat Noir, and to be honest, quiet moments like that one with her seemed to validate my decision to remain transformed as much as possible. Ladybug had become far more understanding about it, but my kwami continued to give me a hard time – though for his part, it felt more like Plagg was trying to keep his crusty reputation intact. Especially since his protestations had essentially become pro forma, easily silenced with a handy slice of camembert or two.

Closing my feline eyes, I managed to snuggle in a bit closer to Ladybug who adjusted slightly to allow me to place my head upon her thigh. I could feel the slight pattern in the fabric of her costume against my exposed cheek; it was subtle, much as the hexagonal pattern in my own costume, and as she shifted her ministrations to a spot behind the other feline ear, I could feel the first stages of drowsiness beginning to descend upon my fur brain. Smiling slightly at the caginess of my partner, I cracked open a masked eye and trained in on her, struggling for a moment to push away an overwhelming desire to drift off to sleep.

“Look, I’ve been thinking,” I started, giving voice to something that I’d been mulling over for a bit. “I… I probably should move back into the mansion.”

“What?”

“Don’t get me wrong,” I hastily added, the tone in my partner’s voice snapping me wide awake. I sat up and turned a bit toward her. “Your parents have been amazing. But I don’t want to overstay my welcome. It can’t be easy having a rescue kitty underfoot.”

“You didn’t need rescuing.” Ladybug leaned down and put a hand to my masked face. “I happen to like having my boyfriend close at hand,” she said softly.

Feeling a slight heat to my cheeks, I knew my face was telling her how I thought about that arrangement, too. I coughed a bit. “Well, as much as I love that aspect of things, _Adrien_ isn’t your current boyfriend,” I reminded her. For as far as her parents were aware, Marinette still had the hots for a certain feline, one who managed to tactically appear when Adrien was otherwise “officially” occupied elsewhere. “So far we’d managed to keep up the charade, but your parents are bound to start seeing the coincidence.”

Ladybug smiled. “They haven’t yet, and to be honest, I think they are too busy to notice the similarities staring them in the face.”

I smiled a bit. “Just one of many perks of living with them.”

“So why leave?” she asked softly. “My parents love you as much as I do – and still will, I’m sure, whenever we wind up making the switch from Chat to Adrien.”

“I know,” I smiled. “And believe me, it’s made a huge difference in getting over this hurdle of who my father turned out to be.”

“Then _why_?”

I looked out across the night. “I’m worried. I mean, nothing has happened since Hawkmoth went away for good; aside from Paris not needing us any longer—”

“They do, trust me.”

“I know that deep down.” I sighed and looked out again at the Eiffel Tower, searching for the words to explain what I was feeling. “Somehow, I feel lost, I guess,” I sighed again as I turned toward her. “My life – at least, up to very recently – was back there in that space. Am I running away from who I am? Do I need to return to that life, face up to it, and then deal with the debris Gabriel left behind?” Leaning back on my paws, I searched the stars that twinkled faintly in the dark sky above. “I guess,” I said softly, “I worry that I’m intentionally hiding from my past. From what Gabriel did.”

Ladybug reached over and pulled me to her side again. “You’ve not done that at all, Chat,” she replied. “I’m not a counselor, of course, but while I’m sure the mansion represents many things to you, it does _not_ represent _you_. What defines you is deep within that feline body of yours, Chat. And that hasn’t changed from the day I met you.”

I looked at Milady again and saw her through that gauzy haze of love that had infected me long, long ago – nearly from the moment she’d entangled me in her yo-yo that first day we were partners. More than luck had brought us together. “You really believe that?”

“Without question. And with all of my heart.”

“Then I am the luckiest kitty in the world,” I sighed as I leaned my wild mane against the top of her head. “I wallow in guilt these days, I suppose.” I looked out in the general direction of the mansion. “I’ve not visited the old place since they took Mother…”

Ladybug reached out again, and cupped the side of my masked face with the palm of her gloved hand. The hexagonal pattern of her costume caught what little light was about as she moved. “Is that what this is really about?”

I put my paw to her hand. “Yeah,” I sighed. “Maybe that’s the nugget of it right there. I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now, ever since Peter first told me they’d run up against a wall trying to unlock the secrets of the casket. Especially this nagging feeling we overlooked something.”

“We turned the place inside out,” Ladybug reminded me. “Even found the dust bunnies in the wine cellar.”

“And yet, I can’t shake it off,” I replied, literally shaking my mane as I said it. “I feel like we missed some secret that might help us save her.”

“You could have just said that.”

“I’m not sure I knew it until tonight, to be honest.”

She nodded. “Okay,” she said as she stood and held her gloved hand out to help me up. “Come on, then.”

My feline ears went straight up. “Right now? You _just_ chastised me about not getting to bed!”

“I know my kitty,” she smiled. “Once you get your curiosity piqued, they’ll be no sleep for any of us.”


	2. Unwelcome Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sure now that she doesn’t want her kitty to be alone – especially in a mansion full of bad memories -- Ladybug agrees to visit Agreste Manor with Chat and put his mind to rest about overlooking anything in the aftermath of his mother’s departure. What they find, though, alters everything._

It had quite literally been weeks since I’d last been to the mansion; aside from a quick trip shortly after Fury departed so I could pick up more clothing, some of the more portable electronics I had and my school materials, Marinette’s family had pretty much provided me with everything else. That last trip had also been in the middle of the afternoon, so coming under cover of darkness gave the entire enterprise something of a creepily dramatic flavor – especially when we landed side-by-side on the roof opposite the hulking but darkened structure. For whatever reason, Ladybug and I took a long moment just to take in the view; a number of emotions ran through me as I looked at my childhood home, but not one of them was nostalgia. 

From the angle we had, my masked eyes were easily able to trace the lines of the tall glass windows leading to my bedroom; though they were as dark as the rest, I’d used them so frequently as my escape to the world beyond they called to me as a way into the mansion. Sadly, I was well aware the entire structure was buttoned up tighter than a bank vault.

“Do you have the key?” Ladybug asked softly, breaking into my reverie.

“Better,” I smiled as I tapped my forehead. “I have the code.”

She put a hand to my arm. “Just to do some expectation levelling, there is a better than average chance we’re not going to find anything in there.”

“I know,” I smiled, though I wasn’t sure she could see it in the darkness. “But I’ll feel better.”

“All right.”

Taking another moment, I followed her over the edge of the roof and across the avenue, landing on the fencing. One quick vault and I was in my crouch in front of the massive double front door, my tail snaking into a curled question mark behind me; Ladybug alighted a step below me and put a hand to my shoulder, a gentle reminder both physical and not that she had my back, no matter what.

I reached up and patted a paw to the back of her hand, then stood, stepping over toward the edge of the doorframe. Gabriel had insisted that the security system blend in with the mansion, which meant the exterior panel was hidden beneath a portion of the exquisitely carved wood. Pressing it firmly with the palm of my paw, the panel clicked and sunk slightly before sliding right.

My masked eyes went wide at what was revealed. “Milady…”

Coming around to stand beside me, she leaned in closer. “Holy Hell,” she breathed.

Below my hovering paw, the panel itself had been cleanly removed, exposing the underlying circuit board and multicolored wiring. While I was not an electronics feline by any stretch – I left that to Max – the small alligator clips that were cross-connecting terminals seemed noticeably out of place. Not to mention the USB drive-sized gizmo that was hanging from one connector, a small light glowing in the otherwise obsidian surface. “This doesn’t look good,” I whispered, slowly getting that undefinable feline sensation that my early morning was about to get interesting. “I’d have to ask Pegasus to take a look but unless I miss my mark, this little beauty—” I indicted the small box with a claw tip, “—is probably telling our monitoring service, ‘Nothing to see here.’”

“Agreed,” Ladybug replied. “Someone knew exactly how to bypass the system, too. That makes this quite the professional operation.”

I turned to the door, allowing the panel to close for the moment. Pressing a paw to one side, I was unsurprised that it swung open slightly. Reaching for my baton, I pushed Ladybug behind me. “I’m not sensing anyone in the space,” I said softly after sniffing the air. “If I had to guess, this happened a while ago. But I might pick up a trace once we’re inside.”

“Still, let’s play it smart.”

“No argument from me on that point,” I smiled slightly. “But… we _do_ have home field advantage.”

“What are you thinking?”

“That we shouldn’t come in the most obvious way,” I replied as I gently stepped backward. “Fortunately, I know a few alternatives.”

Nodding, Ladybug smiled and followed me as I leapt away from the door, up to the overhang and then threw myself in the air further, dropping down against the slanted tile to scurry over the roof toward the rear of the mansion and the basement entrance we’d discovered a few months earlier. Flipping over the edge, I slid down the waterspout to land next to the nondescript door and dropped to my knees, then quickly went to work on the old-fashioned lock with a claw tip.

“No code?” Ladybug laughed quietly.

“Oh, I have a code,” I smiled as my feline ears detected the tumblers clicking open. “Just not a very high tech one,” I added as I stood and turned the knob. 

Still ensuring Ladybug was behind me, I pushed through the door baton first and paused in the small anteroom. Not much had changed since the last time Spider-Man and I had used that entrance; the dusty smell remained, along with a bit more of an air of disuse, perhaps. The door to the pattern vault was directly in front of us, and the glowing red indicator told me that part of the system was still working. To our left was the staircase up to the kitchen; it connected to a series of hidden servant passageways that, had I known about them a year sooner, would have made my early days as a superhero far easier, for consistently escaping from a single point – like my bedroom window – could eventually have caught up with me. 

Reaching for Ladybug’s hand, I said, “Let’s rely on my night vision for a bit. If someone is still here, we’ll have a small advantage.”

“I was about to suggest the same, kitty. After you.”

Slowly we worked our way up the steps and into the pantry; for good measure, I continued up a second flight to the hidden access point just beside my old room on the second floor. Creeping to the peephole, I scanned the mezzanine and what I could see of the atrium. “Looks clear.”

“Ready.”

Pressing the door with my paws, it popped open with a quiet _click_ and the two of us quickly rolled out and crouched below the railing; peering around it, I confirmed again the space was empty, though my feline sense of smell had pretty much already told me that. “We’re alone.”

Ladybug pointed in the semi-darkness. “Chat…”

Glancing down in the direction she’d indicated, I saw the doors to the atelier were wide open. “We left everything closed when Fury took off, right?”

“Yes.”

“And it was closed when I came back to get my stuff?” I added as I started down the steps. An undercurrent of fear began to make my heart pump faster.

“I feel like I would have noticed them being open,” Ladybug replied.

Taking the steps two, and then four at a time, I landed in the middle of the marble floor and dashed to the doorway, concern and worry laced with dread. Very few things of value remained in the atelier, but what we had left, we’d though was perfectly safe given the precautions Gabriel had built into the mansion. As I skidded to a rubbery halt just inside the room, tail snapping in the process, I realized there had been a fatal flaw in that assumption.

What was left of the painting of my mother stood in two pieces against the far wall, the safe Gabriel had prized beneath it fully revealed. The thick door itself lay a few meters away – almost as if someone with superstrength had yanked it cleanly from the hinges. Say, someone with a Miraculous.

A jolt of anger mixed with fear shot through me a moment before I leapt all the way across the room to confirm what I suspected. For the safe itself had only held a few items within it – old photos of me and my mother, the original boxes Gabriel had been given when he’d found the Moth and Peacock Miraculous, some important papers… and one old but extremely significant book. Running my paw through the shelves of the safe only confirmed and enhanced my anxiety.

“It’s gone,” I said simply as I turned back to Ladybug. “The Miraculous Grimoire is missing.”

“You and I were the only ones to know of its location,” Ladybug replied. “Other than your father and Nathalie.” She waited a beat. “Do you think they shared it with anyone?”

I leaned against the wall, boot pressed to the plaster and arms crossed to tamp down the anger. My tail twitched viciously, though, belying my mood. “I wouldn’t have said so, no, given how close to the vest Gabriel played things.”

Something passed over Ladybug’s face. “I’m still not used to you calling your father by his first name.”

“I don’t consider him that any longer,” I replied flatly.

Ladybug ran a gloved hand over my arm. “I get it,” she said gently.

My mood softened and I pulled her toward me. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I thought it would be safe here! Master Fu already has all of the pages on his iPad.” Turning back to the empty safe, I sighed. “But someone else knew it was here. And that same person knew how to bypass the security system. Or,” I sighed even deeper, “was given enough information to do so.”

Ladybug frowned, picking up on my thread. “If he did share it with someone, why?” she asked as she stepped away a bit.

A knot of certainty hit my stomach. “A trade,” I said very softly.

“For what?”

“Freedom,” I said as I started to dash for the door to atelier. I came up short when Ladybug grabbed my tail. “Hey!” I howled.

“Where are we going?” Ladybug demanded. “Freedom for who?”

“Don’t you see!” I replied wildly as I snatched my tail from her gloved hand. “Gabriel is trying to _get free!_ We’ve got to see if he’s still in prison!”

“Chat, we can just call over there—”

“I have to _see_ him there,” I hissed as I dashed out the door.

Three steps from the front, though, Ladybug snagged me again. Swearing, I pivoted. “Let me _go!_ ” I cried, but then hesitated when I saw the look on her face. “…what?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she said sternly. “We are _not_ going to dash over to the prison and confront your father. Not without a plan and some idea of what we are up against.” Carefully, she pulled me to her via my tail, which I grudgingly allowed. “Kitty, don’t let what I am sure are strong feelings cloud that eminently logical feline brain of yours.”

I growled and tugged halfheartedly at my tail, but I slowly nodded. As usual, Ladybug was right.

“Whether they know it or not, whoever did this left us a clue or two that will give us something – anything – that we can use. Knowledge is power.”

“Yeah,” I said dourly. “Which is what that book represents.”

“True,” Ladybug agreed, “so we will have to hope whoever has it in their possession is having no greater success in translating it than Master Fu.” Letting me go, I picked up my tail and rubbed it where she’d yanked; I was forever trying to comprehend how I could _feel_ how much it hurt when she did that.

I watched as she hauled out her yo-yo and clicked open to phone mode. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Calling in some friends,” she smiled. “We’re gonna need some help if we’re going over this place top to bottom.”

My masked eyes went wide. “We have school in a few hours, Milady,” I reminded her.

Ladybug smiled tiredly. “Looks like the flu is about to wipe out a whole section of students at Dupont today.”


	3. Unspooling Threads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Searching the mansion again reveals a clue but leaves Ladybug and Chat more questions than answers._

“What is it, exactly?”

My masked feline eyes were less than half a meter from the strange contraption Pegasus was holding; for all the world, it looked like a normal, exceedingly ordinary LED candelabra bulb. Squinting didn’t seem to make it any easier to fathom, though in my defense, I _was_ somewhat technical. Okay, maybe more that somewhat; still, the frown beneath my fellow holder’s tinted lenses of his Miraculous concerned me greatly. “Ask me what it _isn’t_ and I might be able to answer.”

“All right, I’ll claw at that. What isn’t it? Besides a lightbulb?”

“Well, it does that too,” Pegasus sighed. “It’s definitely not anything left behind by SHIELD, nor is it a device Spider-Man created.”

“That doesn’t narrow things down much,” I replied, arching a masked eyebrow.

“I warned you,” he smiled slightly. “It is a pretty sophisticated piece of tech, though. Miniaturized SSD drive connected to a lithium-ion button battery, with what I think is a high-speed WIFI or cellular data antenna; I won’t know for sure until I break it down at the workbench.” He flipped the gizmo over and pointed to something. “This is a wide-angle lens, and though I’ve not found it yet, I’m nearly certain there is a high-gain directional microphone embedded within in.”

I leaned closer and narrowed my eyes, yet still couldn’t see what he was referring to. “Damn, how on earth can you see it?”

Pegasus smiled and tapped his glasses with a gloved finger. “Macro zoom is apparently a standard feature,” he laughed.

I looked up at him through my bangs. “And I thought my feline vision was something.” Straightening, I took in the wider space of the atrium we were standing in; our voices were echoing in the empty space, which emphasized the austere nature of the home I had essentially abandoned. A feline ear caught the whisper of a conversation from the bedrooms above where Ladybug and Rena were finishing our final lap around the mansion; so far, nothing extraordinary had turned up in our search save for what Pegasus held.

“How close is the tech to the device that was attached to the security panel?” I asked.

“I think they are from the same hand, or the same workbench as it were,” Pegasus nodded. “The one in panel was nearly exactly what you thought: it was cleanly spliced into the security system’s network and looping an ‘all clear’ message to the monitoring service. With the battery backup embedded within it, I’m pretty sure it could have run for a few months before anyone noticed anything.” Pegasus paused, and looked at me thoughtfully. “Good thing you decided to stop in…”

“Yeah,” I replied a bit uncomfortably. Ladybug’s cover story to Team Miraculous was something along the lines of my having an odd feline sense of unease around missing some hidden danger left behind by Hawkmoth at the mansion; it wasn’t _entirely_ a lie, though it had far more to do with the Adrien portion of me still struggling with having grown up with a megalomaniac father. Keeping Pegasus on topic, I pointed to the small bulb with a claw. “From how you describe it, this beauty seems more like some sort of monitoring gizmo. The design doesn’t seem in line with the rest of the security system, right?”

“Definitely not,” Pegasus replied. “The system Gabriel Agreste installed is hard wired; while there are a stunning number of monitoring devices – cameras mainly – none are on WiFi.”

I tried not to roll my eyes, having been once caught on said cameras myself. “That seems odd,” I mused. “Everything else about the mansion seems pretty high tech.”

“On the contrary, it’s pretty smart. Wired connections are harder to breach,” he explained as my masked visage frowned at him. “It’s far more secure to have a hard connection. Any WiFi device would present a possible vector of attack from an outside agency.”

“Oh!” I said, eyes widening. “That actually does make sense. And that underscores your thought about these two devices.” My masked eyes shifted to the atrium. “I’m a bit concerned that we only found two, though.”

“This one went in long before what was in the panel,” Pegasus pointed out. “From where we found it –“ he pointed to the chandelier just above us, “—it had pretty wide coverage of the most trafficked part of the mansion.”

“Why not the atelier?” I asked. “That would be more appropriate if they were spying on Gabriel and his designs.”

“Possibly,” Pegasus smiled slightly. “I’m not into espionage by any stretch, but I can tell you this. Sometimes you don’t know what you are looking for until you see it.” He nodded to the device. “This may have been looking for something else.”

“Like what?” I asked, though I was starting to think I knew. “And when do you think it was planted?”

Pegasus frowned a bit. “While I find it hard to believe Director Fury’s techs overlooked this in their sweep of the mansion, it was pretty neatly camouflaged. There was hardly any electrical output at all; without the magic of my Miraculous, I’m not sure it would have been found.”

Looking up at the chandelier, I frowned deeper. “So it could have been there for weeks. Or months.”

“Yes. I might be able to narrow it down when I tear it apart.”

My tail flicked as I considered the bulb again and quickly replayed my final months in the mansion, wondering; I’d never transformed into Chat outside of my bedroom, but in those final weeks before we took down Hawkmoth, I _had_ made a number of appearances as my heroic alter ego while we were implementing our endgame. I wasn’t as worried about possibly exposing my secret identity; what did concern me was how much of _Adrien_ might have been caught on tape. It made me a bit queasy to think how I’d gone about my business quite literally under the watchful eye of someone.

“Are you sure there are not any more of these?” I asked as I scanned Pegasus’ glasses. “Anywhere else? Like in Adrien’s bedroom, for example? I’m a bit unnerved that someone might have had him under surveillance.”

“The bedroom was clean,” Pegasus assured me. “As was every other room in the mansion. Once I knew what to look for, I did go back through it again,” he reminded me gently.

I smiled tiredly, suddenly feeling the weight of my sleepless nights. “I know you did,” I apologized. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what to tell Adrien.”

“Understandable,” he nodded. 

A feline ear pivoted. “Ladybug is on her way down. I can fill her in if you want to get to work dismantling what you’ve found.”

“On it,” he said as he nodded and withdrew.

Ladybug came down the steps with the fox right beside her and paused to watch Pegasus slip through the front door. “Uh oh,” she said as she stepped to my side. “He has the look of determination.”

“Yeah,” I smiled slightly. “Pegasus came up with some sort of monitoring device that had been cleverly hidden in that chandelier,” I said before quickly filling her and Rena in. By the time I finished my short explanation, we’d been joined by the other members of Team Miraculous who’d assisted in our little top-to-bottom thorough revisiting of every nook and cranny of the mansion.

“Weeks?” Ladybug mused as I dejectedly leaned on my baton.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We have no idea how much activity was captured.”

“At the very least, whoever was watching knew that the mansion had been empty for a while,” Viperion observed. “That might tell us something about their motives.”

“Maybe that was the whole point!” our newest member of the team said excitedly. I tried not to smile as Nathaniel was still feeling his way as the Tiger Holder; the stripes did seem to suit him, though, however exuberant he continued to be after being chosen by Ladybug. “I once caught one of those caper movies online, and there was a moment in the movie where a camera like the one you found was used not to track someone, but to alert someone else when there was no one to track.”

My masked eyes narrowed. “You think the real target was the mansion, Griffes?” I asked, tapping a claw tip to my chin. “Considering they went after the safe, you might be on to something.”

“What do we do from here, Ladybug?” King Monkey asked, a note of concern in his voice. “Do you think we need to set up some sort of protective watch over the kid that lived here?”

I tried not to smile; while Ladybug hadn’t shared the identities of all of the holders with me, it wasn’t hard to see my friend Kim beneath the brown domino mask. He was so perfectly matched to his kwami.

“No,” Ladybug said after shooting a knowing glance at me. “I think Griffes is right – Adrien wasn’t the target. Someone wanted what was in the safe, and planted the camera to know when it was best to move.”

Ryuku nodded. “If you’ll permit me, I have a hypothesis,” the dragon said in her perfectly clipped tones. At a nod from Ladybug, she continued. “I surmise this couldn’t have been added before Gabriel Agreste was arrested. I would further posit that whomever planted this did so under the guise of assisting with the search SHIELD was conducting.”

“That would make for the purrfect cover,” I said slowly. “But they’d have needed to blend in completely with Fury’s people. As well trained as they seemed to be, I can’t believe they wouldn’t have noticed anyone out of the ordinary.” 

“Mirage,” Rena said suddenly.

“Come again?” Ladybug asked.

“ _Mirage_ ,” she repeated, this time with a bit more emphasis. “Or something like it. We’ve dealt with akumas before that were able to masquerade in plain sight. This might be someone with a similar ability.”

Startled, I looked to Ladybug. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought I destroyed the Moth Miraculous. I didn’t think the jewels were repairable…? So it couldn’t be an akuma, could it?”

“We’ve done this long enough now that nothing would surprise me,” she replied thoughtfully. “However, no akuma has been active for more than a few hours; this setup speaks more to someone with Miraculous-like abilities.”

I nodded, following her logic, and started ticking things off on a paw. “The torn painting. The door to the safe. Hallmarks of someone with super strength at the very least. Add to that some sort of chameleon ability…” The frown on my masked visage was threatening to become permanent. “I thought all of the Miraculous were accounted for?”

“So did I,” Ladybug sighed. “Okay everyone, thank you; Chat and I will take it from here, but I have a feeling we are going to need you again. Please watch for my message at come immediately when I reach out.”

There were nods of assent all around; moments later, I was pulling the front door to the mansion closed. After ensuring it was physically locked, I keyed in the code on the repaired security panel with a claw and then slid the panel closed. Turning to Ladybug, I asked: “You’re not going to collect their Miraculous?”

“No,” she said as she tossed her yo-yo to the sky and I leapt up behind her. 

The figurative fur on the back of my neck stood on end as I landed in my crouch beside her on a nearby rooftop. “You think this is serious. Serious enough to keep the team on call.”

“I do,” she replied as she swirled the yo-yo thoughtfully. “I don’t discount your original concern that Gabriel Agreste is somehow bartering his way to freedom; oddly, in some way, I think this break-in is connected to that idea.”

My masked eyes widened. “I’m right, then?” I asked.

“Maybe. I wish we’d found something more definitive.” She sighed deeply as she sat down beside me, then idly reached over to scratch behind a feline ear. I tried to remain professional as she continued, but it was hard to tamp down the purring. “So now we have multiple problems: the missing grimoire, some unknown thief with Miraculous-like abilities, and the real possibility that your father has some sort of escape plan in progress.”

“Why do I have a feline all paths lead to Master Fu at this point?” I asked as I tried unsuccessfully not to lean into her touch.

“Because they do, Chat,” she sighed again, and I could hear the weight of what we were dealing with settle upon her. “Come on, let’s go pay our Guardian a visit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _It's not your imagination! I did miss publishing last week. My apologies._


	4. Major Wrong Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat and Ladybug decide to pay a visit to Master Fu, but wind up in a far different place than expected._

“Ladybug, hang on.”

I managed to gently snag my partner’s red-and-black polka dotted arm before she leapt off the rooftop we’d just alighted upon. She turned those deep blue eyes toward me, yo-yo in one hand, with a quizzical expression on her masked face. Once more I could see just how tired she was, and not only with the weight of being Ladybug; no, I was growing more certain with each passing hour just how concerned she was with my situation, or perhaps more specifically, my safety. From the moment I’d posited that Gabriel was trying to break free from his prison sentence, she’d grown calmer and more intense. If I’d needed any other signs for how serious the situation had become, it was visible in the tense muscles and slight worry lines on the tiny part of her forehead above her mask.

As deep as my own fears were, I knew instinctively I needed to help my partner first.

“Take a moment,” I said softly as I pulled her to me. “We’re not expected, so we can afford a few minutes to relax in this beautiful sunshine.”

Ladybug smiled. “Not all of us are fans of sunbeams, Chat.”

“Regardless,” I said as I hugged her close, “I have a feline you could use a break. If we’re going to skip school, we might as well enjoy a little bit of that freedom.”

“Maybe just a moment,” she sighed as she leaned into me. 

Shifting slightly, I settled us down against the warmth of a brick half-wall, and though I could feel the overwhelming feline impulse to close my eyes and curl up into a tight ball, I instead drew Ladybug’s head into my chest. Ramping up my purring a bit, I could feel a little tenseness resolve. “And now you can tell me why you’re worried.”

I felt Ladybug’s chuckle. “No fair,” she laughed.

“It’s what we do as partners,” I said softly. “You can share your burden with me, Milady.”

She sighed again, deliberated for a moment, and then sighed one more time. “I can handle the idea that your father is underhanded enough to do nearly anything to break out of prison,” she said. “What is truly troubling me is the fact that there’s a real chance someone _else_ has a Miraculous and is using it for evil. Or at the very least, not using it properly.” Ladybug twisted up to look at me. “One Hawkmoth was too many; having _another_ one so soon after seems a bad omen.”

“We did assume evil would fill the vacuum left behind by Gabriel,” I reminded her. “I won’t lie, it scares at least one of my nine lives out of me. Even Master Fu has hinted this kind of thing has happened before. It’s why we exist in the first place.”

Ladybug leaned into me again. “I guess… I guess I was hoping for a bit more time off the superhero circuit,” she said at length. “Was it too much to hope we could be normal teenagers for the summer?”

“Perhaps,” I laughed. “Don’t worry, Milady. We’ll still figure out some way to be ‘normal’ teens. Somehow.”

“Indeed,” she smiled. “With that in mind, let’s get this over with; I’d like very much to end this long day curled up against my kitty with a giant cup of hot cocoa.”

I smiled. “Deal.”

We took the air once more and deftly cut a circuitous route through Paris to Master Fu’s apartment. I wasn’t as frequent a visitor as Ladybug – she was still generally the one to retrieve a Miraculous for one of our temporary holders – but I knew the drill well. We rotated through one of five different approaches, selected at random each time we arrived. That day, Ladybug chose to drop down on several blocks away in an alley close to the Metro station; landing gently on my boots, I shrunk my baton and slid it home at the small of my back, ready to de-transform only to be distracted by the wave of pink magical energy that washed over my partner to review my beautiful girlfriend. 

“Someone’s in a hurry,” I smirked.

“I was serious,” Marinette laughed as she casually adjusted her pigtails and started toward the edge of the alleyway. “That hot cocoa is calling to me—”

My feline instincts kicked in before I realized what I was doing; one vault and I’d wrapped my paws around Marinette’s waist, pulling her into my chest and away from the shimmering energy field that had appeared directly in front of her. Blinking as I pressed my back to the cold brick of the building, I thought I could make out the sizzle of something nasty across the barrier, and saw it stretched all the way to the rooftop we’d just left; there’d be no exit in that direction. Despite the fact I was in Paris, for all the world it appeared like a forcefield right out of _Star Trek_.

“Are you okay?” I asked Marinette as I continued to hold her protectively.

“Yes,” she replied quizzically. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

My masked eyes widened. “You can’t see that?”

“See what?”

“Do you have a pencil?”

“Sure…” she murmured, choosing for the moment to ignore my non-sequitur as she opened her purse and dug around Tikki, retrieving one of her more well-used sketching tools. Placing it into a paw, she looked at me with concern. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” I said quietly as I twisted. “Stand behind me, please, Princess.”

“Chat—”

“ _Please_ , Mari.”

Nodding, she slipped behind me; I repositioned a bit more to ensure my costumed form fully protected her, swallowed, and gently tossed the pencil to the field. In seemingly slow motion, I watched as the pencil hit the field and exploded into thousands of tiny pieces; I managed to throw an arm up to deflect the worst of the tiny shrapnel away from my mane and the exposed portion of my face, but could feel something graze a spot below my left cheekbone.

To her credit, Marinette deftly ducked behind me at the sound but remained calm. As I dusted what was left of the pencil off my costume, she peered around me from where she was crouched at my thigh. “What the _hell_ is that?”

“The science fiction nerd in me wants to say forcefield, but I suspect it to be some kind of magical barrier,” I said as I turned to help her up. “Clearly we are not supposed to use this exit from the alley.”

Marinette slowly stood and took in the alley anew. “Windows start on the third story,” she observed. “And few doors, which is why I chose this alley as a safe spot to arrive unseen.” Looking toward the barrier, she frowned. “It conversely limits our routes of out of here.”

I nodded as I looked up. “No barrier above us,” I reported and then turned toward the darker interior of the alley, “and nothing behind us. I’m not sure if we’re being penned in or gently herded.”

“I don’t like either option,” Marinette frowned as she tugged at my costumed arm and started to run deeper into the alley. “We need to get out of here, I think, and regroup so we can attack this on our own terms.”

I nodded and vaulted over her so I could protectively take the forward position, then yanked my baton from the small of my back so I could pop open the digital map for Paris. “The other end of this alley opens onto Rue de la Rivière,” I said as my feline eyes darted from the display to the cobblestones ahead of us. “That gives us two options: aqua mode and into the river proper or finding the nearest access point and escaping through the ever-lovely Paris sewer.”

“Well,” Marinette laughed mirthlessly as we rounded a corner in the alley, “we’ve not been in the catacombs since Hawkmoth left. And I know how cats hate the water.”

I grimaced at the memory of all that had gone on in the sewers below us since becoming a holder. “I think I could make an exception---”

That feline sense of danger kicked in again and I skidded to a rubbery stop against the cobblestone, grabbing Marinette protectively in a smooth movement. Having just looked at the street map on my baton, I knew we _should_ have been less than a hundred meters from the avenue; instead, the cobblestones stretched away from us, making the alleyway seem deeper and longer than it should have been. I looked up and realized the buildings around us were now angled such that the sky was impossible to see, imparting an ominous foreboding to the now dimly lit space. My unease went to eleven on the dial, and I felt a low growl in the back of my throat.

“Chat?” Marinette said. “What is it?”

Placing a paw to keep her behind me, the growling ticked up further as I rotated us, for the street was no longer where we had left it; instead, the alleyway now stretched off into the distance, turning at right angles to where we were standing. “Where’s the street?” I asked urgently, before looking up again. “And the sky?”

Marinette swore. “Up, Chat! Before it’s too late!”

Scooping Marinette up in my arms, I extended the baton and rose upward. “I don’t like this,” I said as we moved through the air. “I don’t like this one bit.”

“I concur,” she replied, the wind whistling past us. “I’ll transform once we get to a rooftop.”

Upward we went until the baton abruptly stopped with a metallic _twang_ ; as I hung onto it with one arm and cradled Marinette with other, I gently swung around like a giant feline flag, and frowned. Glancing upward, I frowned deeper, for though it was clear we had climbed multiple stories into the air – higher, in fact, than I’d ever gone with the baton – we were no nearer to reaching the very rooftops we’d landed upon not five minutes earlier than if we’d still been on the cobblestones of the alleyway below. I wasn’t sure what was more remarkable: that I’d finally hit the magical limit of my baton’s abilities, or that it had taken me that long to realize how easily we’d become ensnared by something.

Or someone.

Marinette seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and shifted slightly to reach her purse. Opening it, her kwami poked her head out. “Tikki,” she asked, “does this seem familiar to you?”

The tiny god nodded. “It has all the hallmarks of a magical maze, Marinette,” she said in those melodic tones of hers. “The exit is not going to be easy to find.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re thinking of that rose bush thing your father concocted?” I asked, referring to the Sunday Brunch I’d been invited to that had gone horribly off the rails when Tom was akumatized.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “This isn’t good, Chat. Someone knew we’d use this alley.”

“How?” I countered. “Even _we_ didn’t know what alley we were going to use until we did!” I added before I felt the shock of a thought. “Hang on – do you think this is by whoever broke into the mansion?”

“I do,” she replied.

“Damn,” I said softly. “Maybe they didn’t guess. Maybe, if they are a holder like us, they have the same ability to track other holders.”

Marinette’s eyes flew wide. “Hawkmoth never did that,” she pointed out.

“He didn’t need to,” I replied. “We were always quite happy to oblige him whenever another akuma appeared. Whoever this is has taken it to the next level.”

“What do you mean?”

“The theft of the Grimoire served two purposes,” I explained. “Not only did they gain access to the spell book, it ultimately came to our attention and drew us out.” I growled a bit for effect. “This is partly on me – I’ve been Chat more than I should have; we have no idea how long this person’s been tracking holders.”

“Dear Lord,” Marinette said before cursing. “That’s how they knew! We’ve used this alley before, certainly since Hawkmoth was defeated. We’ve used _all_ of our landing spots around his apartment multiple times; the only thing that’s saved us is we de-transform before visiting him.” She swore again. “They are after the Guardian as well, aren’t they? And I’ve nearly led them to his front door.”

“We haven’t yet,” I observed as I clicked the descent trigger on the lighted cat paw logo and we started to drop to the street. “But it’s clear we’re in a bit of predicament. How did you break out of the last magical maze?” I asked as my boots gently touched the cobblestones and I released her. I found myself tensed into my battle-ready stance, baton out and ready.

“I found the rose that held the akuma,” Marinette shrugged. “I doubt it will be that easy here.”

There in the now odd near darkness of the alleyway, I felt the menace of the space press down upon us. That, and the undeniable feeling someone was watching. “Mari,” I said quietly, unsure of whether it mattered, “I don’t think it would be a good idea to transform.”

“Why?” she replied.

“Something is now here with us,” I replied softly, knowing my ears had flattened to my mane. “It might be best for it to think it’s only captured one of the Heroes of Paris and his girlfriend, if you get my meaning.”

“That presupposes whoever our host is didn’t catch me de-transforming. And we’ll have to see if they make the logical connection that Ladybug arrived with you, but now I’m here.” Marinette looked at me and slowly nodded as she gently pushed Tikki back into her purse. “But maybe we’ll play that angle, just in case. Never hurts to have an ace in the hole.”

I smiled grimly. “I have a feline we are gonna need one. Come on, Princess; let’s see if we can find an exit.”

“Or any trace of who our host is,” she replied as she once again took up position behind the safety of my costumed feline body. With few options, we randomly started walking back in the direction of where the street _should_ have been.

“I’d prefer the former, I think,” I said very quietly, my masked eyes carefully scanning every nook and cranny as we walked. “For I could really use a cup of coffee now.”


	5. Wasteland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Searching for a way out of the magical maze they’ve become ensnared in, Chat and Marinette begin to realize it’s part of a much larger and well thought out plan._

“I feel a bit like we’re paying the price for skipping school,” Marinette said as we continued down the darkened alleyway, searching fruitlessly for any way out.

A half-step ahead of Marinette, I had my baton out and extended slightly. “I was thinking the same thing; I was already feeling a little guilty, given how hard I’d fought Gabriel to get there in the first place.” I laughed slightly as I turned toward her. “I don’t count all the times we’ve had to sneak out to save Paris, mind you.”

“Me either,” she smiled back at me. For her part, Marinette had her cell phone in her hand with a timer going; given how the buildings towering over us now did so at a creepy angle that blocked the sky, we’d wanted a solid way to keep track of how long we’d been trapped. Given that magic was involved, I wasn’t sure it would be safe to rely on my internal feline clock. “Twenty minutes, by the way.”

I sighed as we turned another of the serpentine angles – a little left, a little right, and then left again. “It seems like a lot longer, honestly.”

Marinette waved her hands around us. “Clearly this is affecting our perception of time and space.”

My ears shot up. “Are we even in the alleyway?” I asked. “Or did we get sucked into some sort side parlor of the universe?”

“Funny you should put it that way,” Marinette replied. “But that’s not a bad way to think about it; I get the impression whoever did this to us wants to talk.”

“Or is a fan of parlor games.”

“That, too.”

Just for form, I tried the door we were passing; like the last (seemingly) hundred or so, it barely budged under my paw. I’d offered to Cataclysm our way through one – or any of the windows on the stories above I’d similarly tried to pry open on our walk – but Marinette had wisely recommended I hold it back. Stepping away from the latest door, it occurred to me I’d not restocked my emergency cheese supply since leaving the Bakery; I had one, maybe two slices for Plagg if I detransformed. Being judicious now seemed quite prudent.

As amazing as it seemed, it continued to get darker the further we went. I wasn’t certain if that was a sign that we were going in the right direction, or a warning to turn around; had the calendar been closer to Halloween, I would have assumed the hair standing up at the base of my neck was part-in-parcel of a particularly appropriate haunted mansion. All that was missing was spooky music, a layer of fog, and a faint howl of a werewolf in the distance.

The fog appeared as we rounded yet another corner, swirling first around my booted ankles; within a few moments, it had filled the air around us, making seeing more than a few meters in any direction difficult. I tightened my grip on Marinette’s arm and pulled her closer to me, all of my feline senses working on overdrive to try and pierce the veil of cotton that had shrouded us completely.

“I think getting separated at this point would be bad,” I said, my voice muffled by the dampness. “And that is also part of the plan, no?”

“I agree,” Marinette replied as she put an arm around my waist. I started to smile – it was a movement borne of familiarity, so casual yet speaking volumes on where we were as a couple – before smiling wider as I felt her reach for my tail. “This might sting a bit,” she said softly.

“If it means keeping you close, it’s worth the pain,” I chuckled as I felt her loop the free end around her. I tried not to wince as she tied another knot at one end, amazed yet again that I could even _feel_ what she was doing on that level.

“Can your feline vision get through this pea soup?”

“Not particularly,” I said, frowning a bit as I did. For my masked eyes had been flipping between night vision and normal, trying to find the best balance to determine what we were facing. “In fact, I think this fog was designed to zero out all of my feline abilities,” I added with a growing dread. “Not only can I _not_ see more than a meter or so, it’s dampening my hearing as well; this fog is also messing with my feline nose, so smell is out, too.”

Marinette nodded, almost like I’d confirmed something. “First they trap us – well, you,” she smiled, “since I’m just the unlucky civilian who joined you. Then they systematically begin to take away your advantages as a feline superhero.”

I nodded. “I can’t leap to the rooftops and vault out of here, and running in any direction won’t get me anywhere. And now a bunch of my superior senses are muted almost completely. All that’s left is my Cataclysm.”

“It was wise to keep me from transforming,” she said softly as we continued onward, slowly feeling our way along a wall of the alley. “Do you think we’re still being observed?”

“I do,” I nodded. “ _That_ sense hasn’t been disrupted. What intrigues me more is why they’ve not revealed themselves yet.”

“Actually, we have an answer for that,” she said as we paused at dumpster I was surprised was there in the magical maze. “The longer they wait, the less of Chat Noir they will have to face. Don’t get me wrong, but without your enhanced abilities, you’re just an ordinary teenager. Athletic, of course, but ordinary.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I laughed, “but I also see what you mean.” I looked at my ring and was somewhat relieved to see the pawprint fully lit. “I may not have all of my senses, but I _am_ fully charged… and remain a wily black cat. There’s far more to this pretty face than just my magic.”

“I won’t argue with that,” Marinette smiled as she quickly kissed my exposed cheek. “If I might offer some advice, though?”

“Always, Princess.”

“Whatever comes at us initially, play as though you are _more_ affected than you really are. It might expose something we can use later.”

I nodded slowly. “Only if I am sure it doesn’t mean leaving you unprotected,” I hedged.

“I figured you’d say something like that, Chat,” she sighed. Marinette trained her deep blue eyes on me and got the Ladybug look on her face. “I know it goes against ever fiber of that feline body of yours, but trust me on this: I think we’re going to need some legerdemain to get out of this mess. The weaker our adversary thinks you are, the more that helps us.”

“Milady—” I started to protest only to have her put a finger to my lips.

“Chat.”

I felt myself growling a bit, but grudgingly nodded. “Fine.”

We started to walk again and felt our way around another corner; I rather sullenly kept my own council, for _not_ protecting Marinette/Ladybug went against everything I was as a hero. While there was no question I was on board with her idea, being Chat meant my thoughts furiously spun away from me into plans and counter plans to be true to my core duties while ostensibly honoring her request. I’d managed to firm up one or two when the space around us began to take on a chilling eerie red-yellow glow; I took a cautious sniff of the air and was rewarded by picking up a faint essence of sulfur on the breeze. The fact I could even identify it made me a little less anxious; straining my feline ears, I picked up a faint sound of crackling, and found myself smiling.

 _Not as wounded as they might believe_ , I paraphrased one of my favorite movies to myself. _So much the better._

By unspoken agreement, the two of us slowed as we came to another turn; my paws told me the brickwork of the alleyway had given way to something more akin to a tree trunk. Taking another step, my boots sunk slightly into a moss-covered trail of sorts, and I turned to Marinette. “Scene change?” I whispered before squinting into the fog to try and locate where the red-yellow glow was emanating from.

“We’re not in the alley any longer, that’s for sure.”

Stepping forward, the mists around us began to fade. “Are we even in Paris?”

Marinette glanced at her phone, still in one hand. “Fifty-seven minutes, by the way. And yes, my GPS says we’ve not moved more than a meter from where we landed in that alley. What does your baton say?”

My feline eyes glanced down at my extended staff, then back at the glowing fog. “I’ll check later.”

“Fair enough.”

A few more steps and the fog had pulled back a sufficient amount to reveal we were now in some sort of old growth forest comprised of trees hundreds of meters in height. As with the alleyway, the canopy above us cut off any view of the sky, though to me it seemed as unlikely an escape avenue as before. The path we were on was well-trod but spongey, squishing every now and then beneath the soles of my boots. Even with how desensitized my nose was, slight notes of organic decomposition still wafted up with each step. Another meter or two, and we found ourselves in a small moss-covered glade surrounded by those tall trees. 

Not more than a few meters in diameter, small fires were in full blaze atop triangular stonework pedestals placed at what seemed to be very specific positions around the glade – almost as if they were points on a compass, albeit one that had five cardinal directions, not four. The flickering orange-red flames chased away the last of the shadows that had dogged us for most of our walk, but gave the space something of an ominous feel, as if we’d stumbled upon an ancient ritual in progress. Some base feline instinct was desperate to get away, harkening back perhaps to a time when cats were part of such rites – and not always as willing participants.

Encouraging such comparisons, in the exact center of the glade was slight rise topped by some sort of rocky outcrop; a bubbling spring was bursting from a crack and tumbling down to a small pool below that had crystal clear water of a depth even my feline eyes couldn’t fathom. Oddly, I’d not heard the melodic tinkling of the fountain on approach. Looking more closely, I thought I could see an indentation just beside the spring that _could_ be wide enough for a seat; it took a moment for me to realize it had a spotlight of sorts on it, and looking up, I could see a shaft of a moonbeam breaking through the tight canopy above to strike the stone below. 

“Are we about to get to the main event?” I whispered to Marinette as I took up a protective position in front of her and tensed, baton at the ready.

“That _does_ look like a throne, doesn’t it?” she replied, the tug on my tail telling me she’d moved to look around the bulk of my feline body. “Or an ancient temple.”

I started to say something but was interrupted by a brilliant burst of orange-red light forcing me to squint; in a smooth movement, I pushed Marinette behind me completely and spun up my baton into shield mode, frantically blinking away the spots from my vision. It took another heartbeat before the light dissipated enough that I’d wished I were still blinded by the light. For sitting there on the stone throne in an elegant dress in fiery hues of orange and red, wearing a snarky smile and holding the Miraculous Grimoire, no less, was the last person I’d expected to see.

Then again, maybe it should have been the _first_.

Marinette seemed to be thinking the same thing, for I felt her body tense against mine for a moment before she boldly stood and stepped around me. I started to object only to have her glare me into silence.

“Hello, Lila,” she said icily. “Fancy meeting you here.”


	6. Nemesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat and Marinette find themselves face-to-face with the last person in Paris who should have access to a Miraculous._

“I set my trap, and what do I get?” Lila asked rhetorically, her eyes raking over us as we stood there in the glad of her own creation. “An intolerable goodie two-shoes, and a mangy alley cat.” She shrugged as she examined her fingernails. “Not exactly what I was expecting, but I guess it will do.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” I growled as I tried to step around Marinette. She placed a hand on my hip, enough of a gesture that I got the picture: _stand down, follow my lead._

“Ladybug was with you, wasn’t she?” Lila looked up. Her brown hair was not quite the style we were used to seeing, and I wondered what it meant that she wasn’t in a costume of some sort. It seemed standard for anyone who was a holder – or, at least, anyone who was a holder of the superhero persuasion.

“You were tracking us, weren’t you?” I replied evenly, my feline eyes unwaveringly meeting hers. “You tell me.”

Nodding slowly, she confirmed our suspicion with a slight grin. “Only one of you,” she answered cryptically. “I apparently made an assumption the two of you were together, always. I won’t make that mistake again.” Her eyes narrowed. “So why is Miss Pearl Pure-Heart with you?”

I tried not to react to the venom laced words; if I’d even been in doubt as to how Lila felt about Marinette, it was firmly put to rest now. “My girlfriend?” I rejoindered innocently. “We were off to grab a bite to eat.”

“Girlfriend?” Lila’s eyes widened.

“Yeah,” Marinette said tartly. “Where have you been? It’s been the talk of the school for months.”

“I assumed you were lying.”

“Not all of us are you,” Marinette shot back.

“Maybe not,” Lila smiled as she slowly nodded. “Maybe this is better than I thought,” she mused as she stood from her throne and took a step toward us. “For it means Chat Noir has a soft spot. One I can exploit.”

“Just try me,” I growled, tensing, for I was reasonably certain what was coming next.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Lila said something under her breath as she simultaneously held up her hand; instinctively, I yanked on my tail, hauling Marinette behind me as I spun the baton into shield mode. I managed to fend off two blasts of some sort of blindingly white energy, but the third hit me with enough force it actually knocked my baton out of my hand. The fourth nailed me in the chest, hurling me across the glade; I hit the mossy surface and dug a deep groove into the soft earth before coming to rest twenty meters from Lila. Marinette fell into my chest, hauled along as a result of still having my tail tied around my waist.

Hitting me squarely, she knocked the breath out of me; I tried to gasp, but though my brain was sending the right commands, my body was refusing to cooperate. Still in protection mode, I managed to curl my feline body around Marinette and roll out of the ditch I created just as another bolt of that deadly energy sizzled past a feline ear. Finally sucking in a deep lungful of air as we tumbled together across the mossy ground, the world rotated around my masked feline eyes as I aimed for the edge of the glade. I knew intellectually Lila had home field advantage, but figured the relative safety of the canopied forest seemed like as good a play as any.

Almost as if confirming my thoughts, I heard Lila cackle behind me as I made it to the edge with my precious cargo and rolled down a slight decline, deep into the darkened woods. “You can’t get far, Chat,” she continued to laugh. “And you’ve already proved my point. Give me what I want and Marinette goes free.”

The wording of her offer sounded odd, and as I released Marinette, I could see in her eyes she’d caught it too. Leaning upward slightly so my masked eyes were just above the edge of the hill we were on. “I can’t give you what you want unless you tell me what it is.”

Lila cackled again, closer this time. I scanned the glade and felt the fur on the back of my neck go up, for our nemesis was nowhere to be found. “Silly kitty. There’s only one thing I want.”

“Why are you working with Hawkmoth?” I shouted back as I grabbed Marinette’s hand and we quickly scampered deeper into the forest. I harbored no illusions we could actually escape whatever environment Lila had created, but I was determined to make it as difficult as possible. “He’s in no position to grant you anything at this point.”

“Maybe he is,” she said, her voice hovering above us. “Ours is an old bargain.”

“Including your Miraculous?” Marinette asked, looking at me again and pointing to her earrings.

I shook my head, thinking she was offering to transform; she shook her head violently and mimicked a countdown on her fingers. My masked eyebrows shot up as she pointed vaguely toward Lila’s disembodied voice. Her final motion was to gently tap a feline ear.

_Ah_!

“I’ve had it for a while, actually. It’s been rather handy being able to help Hawkmoth as needed.”

Cocking a feline ear toward her voice, I strained and _thought_ I heard the telltale countdown chirps – but I couldn’t be sure. Whatever spell Lila had woven around us was still affecting most of my feline senses, but if that _was_ her Miraculous, that gave me pause, for Marinette’s phone indicated we’d been caught inside the magical maze for far longer than the standard five minutes. The only person we’d ever met who’d not needed to recharge was adult Bunnix, though it was a good assumption Hawkmoth had the same ability. Unless _this_ version of Lila was much older than she appeared, we’d either been trapped far shorter than the near hour Marinette’s phone had indicated, or she’d unlocked another secret from the Grimoire. 

I wondered just how deep her relationship with Gabriel was, for it seemed unlikely she’d have unearthed such a powerful spell in the short time she’d had the Grimoire on her own. Then again, given how crafty Lila had proven to be over the time we’d known her – and how many times Hawkmoth had akumatized her, for that matter – it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility she’d become far more dangerous than ever before. I knew I’d have to assume the worst.

“With help like yours… I’m surprised he’s kept you on the payroll,” I called out as I darted around the trees, Marinette’s hand in my paw.

“I didn’t land him in prison!” Lila thundered from somewhere to our side. “His own ineptitude, and a lucky break for you and that bug is all that was.”

“I still don’t understand what you want,” I asked again as we dashed sideways and ever deeper into the darkness. “From what I’m seeing, your Miraculous would be just as effective at breaking him out than mine.”

“I don’t want your _ring_ , Chat,” Lila said quietly.

I skidded to a halt, for she was barely three meters in front of us.

“I want you,” she continued, before smiling rather wickedly.

I had barely enough time to throw my paw in front of me before the world exploded around me and then went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _It's NaNoWriMo time once again! I'm afraid this means that updates will slow a bit during the month of November, 2020 as I take on that challenge. Regular posts will resume in December, 2020. -ep_


	7. Friends In Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat awakens to find himself in the untenable position of doing Lila’s bidding in order to protect Marinette. Except that her request proves to be problematic to say the least._

When the world came back to me, I found myself lying on my back against the cold cobblestones of what looked to be the alleyway Ladybug and I had dropped into nearly a lifetime ago. The sky was a brilliant blue slash between the buildings on either side, with a hint of clouds, once more the peaceful sun-filled day we’d been experiencing before Lila burst onto the scene. Pushing myself up by a paw, my vision swam for a moment as a wave of nausea washed over me; shaking my mane, I tried to clear the cobwebs from my feline brain before being shocked into action.

Flipping into my pounce-crouch, I quickly pivoted a full three-sixty, calling out as I did so: “Marinette? _Marinette!_ ”

Leaping into a standing position, I ran down the cobblestones, yelling every few meters until I reached the other end we’d tried to get to originally before realizing we were in Lila’s trap. Turning quickly enough that my rubber soles squealed, I ran even faster down to the other end, though I knew in my heart, I wouldn’t find Marinette. Even before my baton started to buzz with an incoming text, I found myself grimly frowning.

Snapping open the baton, my masked feline eyes scanned the text.

**_Mari:_** _I’m fine, but Lila is obviously holding me in the oven._

My masked eyebrows furrowed. _Oven?_ I thought. _Is that some sort of…? Oh no…_

**_Chat:_** _I thought I was the only one that could raise your tempurrature._

_**Mari:** True. As I said, we’re only on simmer at the moment, but that could change if you don’t follow Lila’s instructions to the letter. This is important, Chat. To the letter._

My claws hovered over the baton’s interface for a long moment, my blood having run cold. Not only did Lila have Marinette, but she’d also apparently taken the prudent step of using my girlfriend’s family – and their bakery – as additional leverage. It was the classic superhero dilemma – the villain squeezing those we loved to get what they wanted, using our fear of their coming to harm against us. It wasn’t the first time that I’d rather perversely been reminded of Ladybug’s original reasoning for keeping our alter-egos safely hidden from each other. Now that the Chat was literally out of the bag, I grimly focused on how to get us out of this situation. Knowing Marinette was likely being monitored closely, I chose my next words carefully.

**_Chat:_** _When have I ever_ not _done that, Princess?_

_**Mari:** I think Ladybug has some stories to tell on that one._

I nodded to myself, knowing she was now warning me that Lila would expect me to deviate from any instructions she gave me. That was good to know – and gave me some insight into how thoroughly she had planned out whatever it was she was doing.

**_Chat:_ ** _I’m feeling purrsicuted._

_**Mari:** When the shoe fits._

_**Chat:** I’m pawsitively excited now. What exactly does dearest Lila desire?_

_**Mari:** Step one requires you to locate Adrien Agreste…_

That masked eyebrow of mine arched.

**_Mari:_** _…as he apparently has access to the accounts at House of Gabriel._

It was hard not to keep frowning. Of _course_ I had access to that – I was running the company, for crying out loud. That is, when I wasn’t running around Paris in skintight magical black leather. I bit my lip and decided not to text back my snarky reply.

**_Chat:_** _I thought he was staying with your family. He’s not there?_

_**Mari** : Apparently not. My parents say he stepped out._

I nodded, slowly seeing how Marinette was carefully creating an alibi for my alter-ego. I tapped my claw tip against the metal of the baton, wondering how to tell her I understood, then smiled when it hit me.

**_Chat:_** _I bet he went back to the mansion to pick up something._

_**Mari:** It’s worth purrsuing._

The smile grew wider at the implicit acknowledgement.

_**Chat:** And then what?_

_**Mari:** Once you have him, text me. Lila will give you the next step then._

_**Chat:** I’m not a kitten, she doesn’t need to spoon feed me._

_**Mari:** I won’t give her the dignity of typing her response._

_**Chat:** I’m already angry anyway. Tell her it will take some time to find Adrien._

_**Mari:** She says you have three hours. And Chat?_

_**Chat:**?_

_**Mari:** The next call will be video._

_**Chat:** Aww… any excuse to ogle me…_

_**Mari:** Exactly. Be careful._

I considered the final portion of the text message for a moment or two, reading between the lines as best as I could. Knowing in advance that a video connection was required told me two things: first, whatever instructions Lila planned to give were going to be relayed directly to Adrien; and, second, that I was going to have a hard time playing both parts simultaneously. At least, not without some help. And knowing how cagey Lila was, my sleight of hand was going to have to be pretty damn solid to keep her from connecting the dots between Chat and Adrien.

Fortunately, I was already formulating something of a plan.

Leaping into the air, I clawed my way to the rooftops and then hurled my feline body into the brilliant blue of the open skies over Paris; propelled by my baton, I quickly crossed the city in a series of giant arcs and vaults, landing at length on the rooftop across from the mansion. From my cat crouch, I scanned the hulking edifice much as we had done – well, now that I thought about it, nearly fourteen hours earlier. We’d been on the run ever since, explaining the hard-to-ignore urge to curl up in a convenient sunbeam and catch a few moments of shuteye. But I knew I was on a strict timeline and shoved the wonderful idea to the side as I leapt over the street and hit the fence, then paused for a moment, carefully perched atop the iron. 

Trying to channel some of what I had learned from working with Ladybug, I knew that meant I had to consider I was being monitored in some way; slowly scanning the rooflines, my feline eyes didn’t pick up anything unusual, but then again, we’d stumbled quite easily into the trap Lila had set for us. There was also our base assumption that somehow Lila had been able to use the Miraculous tracker we all came equipped with, which I was now nearly certain was how she’d been able to corral us so easily. Cocking my head at the mansion thoughtfully, I decided disarming the alarm and entering as if I owned the place was probably the wrong move, especially if Marinette had convinced Lila there was a solid chance Adrien had returned for something, ostensibly arriving well ahead of Chat.

Which gave me an idea.

Snapping open the baton, I flipped to the web browser and quickly tapped in the address for the web portal controlling the security system for the mansion. On my alter-ego’s phone it was a simple-to-use app, but the baton still didn’t support such niceties; it took two tries to remember my password, and then I was on the dashboard for the mansion. One tap and the system was disarmed; a second, and my feline ears picked up the gentle hissing of my bedroom window sliding open. Looking up at it from beneath my bangs, I waited a few moments before leaping to the sill, perching expectantly.

Keeping my baton out, I called into the empty room. “Hey, Adrien! Mind if I step inside?”

Cocking my head, I acted as though I was awaiting a response that never came, then waited another heartbeat or two before vaulting into the room and landing dead center on the floor just as I had always done. The late afternoon rays of sunshine were slanting across my couch, and for just a moment, I could nearly convince myself I was returning from a normal patrol, home for an afternoon of homework and studying at the spotless desk against the wall by my perfectly made bed. The entire space felt like a museum to both a person and a time that no longer existed.

Shaking off the nostalgia, I leapt to the door leading to my bathroom and slid it open. The walk-in closet was still overflowing with endless copies of the button-down, t-shirt and skinny jeans I’d worn as a walking advertisement for Gabriel each and every day; I smiled a bit at how quickly I’d left _that_ behind, replacing all of it with far more comfortable clothing appropriate for a teenager. Moving quickly to the rear of the cavernous space, I reached a paw to the closet rod and slid back a few items to gain access to opaque garment bag hanging against the wall. Turning it slightly, I pulled down the zipper just enough to confirm I’d found my quarry; my smile grew wider when my feline eyes alighted on the boots carefully placed on the shelf above, right next to wig stand holding a blonde mop of hair topped with quite recognizable triangular feline ears.

For the first time since encountering Lila, I felt like I might be gaining the upper hand.

Retrieving my baton, I snapped it open and shifted to phone mode; scrolling through my contacts, I selected perhaps the only other person in the world who could help me pull this off. It took but a moment for the call to connect; when the face appeared, I smiled my best Chat smile.

“Hey, Pete,” I said warmly. “How tall are you, _exactly_?”


	8. Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat enlists the help of his New York superhero friend to get the upper hand with his nemesis – and return Marinette safely to his arms._

Standing on the balcony that rimmed my bedroom, I was wearing a slight smile as I folded my arms and watched my friend scuttle across the ceiling of my room. “I have to admit to a tad bit of jealousy,” I said, narrowing my masked eyes as he swiftly reached into the second of two spotlights and quickly unscrewed it. “Clinging to any surface is a handy trick.”

“I never get tired of it,” came the laughing reply. Hanging unaided upside down, Peter Parker was clad in the Chat Noir costume I’d pulled from my closet, the faux tail swinging beneath him as he twisted the bulb a final time. That corner of my room was plunged into semi-darkness as the light winked out, though my night vision had no trouble seeing the impish look in his face as he deftly tossed the bulb to my waiting paws. “You should try it some time.”

“Plagg assures me it’s not in the black cat toolkit,” I replied as he flipped from the ceiling and landed on the edge of the balcony. “Though there is apparently a Miraculous that grants that ability.”

Pegasus had provided the portal to get Spider-Man from New York to the mansion less than an hour earlier, and remained on standby in case I needed him again. Spidey and I had spent the time since getting him decked out with the costume Gabriel had made for me and all of its associated trimmings. It had quickly become apparent I’d not accounted for the fact that I’d grown since Adrien had been tapped to make the music video; as Peter was slightly taller than I had been at the time, it had taken no small amount of squirming to get him zipped into the costume, making me quite thankful the fabric was as stretchy as it was – and that my magical version had simply, and subtly, adjusted on its own. I leaned on my skills as a supermodel to complete the subterfuge, though Peter had been less than enthusiastic about the eye makeup – something he been quite vocal about as the glue for the mask set.

“I’ve seen you walk sideways on a building,” Peter countered, continuing our light conversation. Since his mask wasn’t magical, it was hard to know if he was arching an eyebrow, though his tone implied he might be. “Are you _sure_ you can’t hang upside down?”

“It’s just parkour,” I laughed. “Get up enough speed and anyone can defy gravity for a few moments.”

“I suspect it’s more than that.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.” I stepped back and put a claw tip to my chin thoughtfully. “Do I really look like that when I perch?” Oddly, while he was perched on the handrail much like I would as Chat, it was hard for me not to see him in his red, white and blue outfit instead of unrelieved black and a blond wig with triangular cat ears.

Peter smiled. “I don’t have much of a data set to go from, but from what I’ve seen, yes.”

“Well, you’re pretty convincing for me,” I smiled. “I still can’t believe the costume fit.”

“It’s definitely tight in a few spots,” he reminded me. “I’m not going to flex it more than necessary – wouldn’t do for Chat Noir to rip his trousers. But the contacts are amazingly uncomfortable. The only thing keeping me from rubbing my eyes are these claw tips.”

Sliding my baton out, I snapped it open to the phone to check the time. “Hang in there for a few more minutes,” I said as I flipped up and over the edge, landing on the floor below in a crouch. “Then you can go back to your _normal_ skintight wardrobe sans lenses.”

Lightly dropping to the floor next to me, he nodded. “Up on the window, then?”

“Yes,” I replied as I stood. 

Peter leapt to the window and did an end-over-end twist to land facing me, an amazing feat of acrobatics borne from his endless hours of soaring through New York City on those weblines of his. Perching on the edge, he gripped the front of the windowsill with one gloved hand. “Like this?”

“Slightly to the left,” I said, watching carefully to ensure Peter’s form was hidden just enough in the shadows. “Purrfect. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” he smiled.

I nodded and stepped back toward the couch. This was the trickiest part of my plan, for I needed to de-transform in order to provide Lila with Adrien; doing so, though, would wipe my cat paw logo off of any Miraculous tracker Lila might be using. I had a way to handle that, but it presumed Lila was less familiar with the inner workings of the mansion that I feared she was. It was a gamble, one that I wouldn’t have taken save for Marinette being in danger. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.

“Plagg – claws in.”

I could feel the green wave of transformation as it washed over me; opening my eyes, I found Plagg floating just in front of me. “This is dangerous,” he said without preamble.

I nodded, knowing he’d essentially been following along with my preparations. “It’s the only play I have. Do you have any sense of what Miraculous Lila is using?” I asked as I slid my phone out of my jeans. “I’ve not had a chance to ask you yet.”

“Maybe,” Plagg said thoughtfully. “I’m not fully aware of what other jewels were missing from Master Fu’s box – other than the Moth and Peacock, of course.”

Scrolling through my contacts, I nodded. “We’ll deal with that after I find out what nefariousness Lila wants Adrien to perform. I just hope she buys into our little charade,” I added as I turned my back to Peter and held the phone up, carefully arranging the shot.

“Good luck,” Plagg said before slipping beneath my shirt.

Taking another breath, I donned a worried expression (which wasn’t hard) and then dialed Marinette. She picked up nearly immediately, her face smiling for a moment when she caught the tableau. “Adrien. I’m so sorry about this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled slightly. “Chat filled me in on what happened,” I added, twisting slightly to show the shaded form of Peter on the windowsill. “Suffice it to say, he’s in _furr_ iated.”

I caught the momentary expression on Marinette’s face. “I’m sure. Hold on, Lila wants to talk to you.”

The video shifted and then resolved to the smug face of my least-favorite schoolmate, radiating with the power she apparently had gained from her jewels. I wondered if that meant she’d recharged her kwami while I’d been busily preparing. “Adrien,” she said sweetly, laced with menace. “So _good_ to see you again, my friend. Where have you been hiding out?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I replied.

“You weren’t at the mansion when I stopped there earlier,” she said.

“I’ve been staying with Marinette and her family,” I replied. “They’ve opened their home to me; if I’d known you wanted to see me, I’d have made myself available to you, _friend_.”

“I doubt that,” she said, her eyes flicking over my shoulder. “Chat Noir is there with you?”

“Obviously,” I said.

Glancing off screen for a moment, I saw her frown; it looked like I had my answer about her tracking us, unfortunate confirmation that I’d need to be exceedingly careful. But it also provided an opening, one that I had planned for if it appeared.

“Something wrong?” I asked with as much innocence as my model training would allow.

“No,” she said slowly, returning her gaze to me. 

“Your video _is_ a little rough,” I added, lying slightly. “Whatever it was Father added during that last security upgrade seriously screws with my cell coverage. I’m surprised I was able to get this connection, frankly.”

“Security?” she asked, frowning again. 

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I don’t know much about it other than Father was worried about people stealing his secrets. For all the good it did.”

I waited, watching her consider what I’d said; my hope was she’d combine my white lie with what she had to have already known about the security system from her earlier break in. I knew from our final encounter with Hawkmoth inside the mansion that Father had installed a signal blocking system – something that had temporarily cut Spider-Man and I off from Ladybug at a critical moment in the battle. Slowly, she nodded to herself, providing me with another confirmation.

It was a bit scary how well I knew – or at the very least, understood – Lila.

“Well, now that I have you,” she continued. “I need to ask a favor.”

I frowned. “People asking favors generally don’t do so while holding someone hostage.”

“True,” she laughed. “Think of it as motivation. More for Chat than you, I think. But motivation, nonetheless.”

It wasn’t difficult to let my anger appear. “What do you want, Lila?”

“I need access,” she said simply. “You can log into House of Gabriel’s network?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Good. I need you to access your father’s data files.”

“Why?” I asked bluntly.

“That’s not your concern,” she smiled sweetly. “You’re looking for a folder named ‘Project Guilford.’ Download _all_ of it and post it to the cloud share I will text you.”

Keeping my face passive, I rapidly sorted through my responses. “I don’t think I can access that from the mansion,” I hedged. “But you would know that if you already tried from here.”

She nodded, confirming she needed my _physical_ access to House of Gabriel. It made me wonder whether she was truly after a set of data files, or something buried within the office space; I started when I realized Ladybug and I had skipped over searching Father’s office in our quest for answers.

“And I’m not doing anything unless you let Marinette go.”

“Oh, I think you will,” Lila replied.

“No,” I said firmly. “I won’t. You need me to get into House of Gabriel. Let her go and I’ll get the file for you.”

Lila considered me for a long moment, and though I’d expected her to cave to my demand, I also figured it would come with a counter. Which it did. “I’ll let her go once you access the files.”

I played like I was considering her kind offer. “How about this. I’ll get Chat through the security at House of Gabriel, and then give him my credentials for the network.”

“I need you to be there,” Lila said quickly before realizing she’d tipped her hand.

“That’s kind of what I figured,” I replied, trying not to smile; I was becoming more inclined by the moment that she needed a _person_ – namely, Adrien – instead of a _thing_ from House of Gabriel. What that knowledge netted me was vague at the moment. “I think I’ll stay right here, cozily ensconced within the _fully operational security system_ ,” I emphasized. “Chat will get your files and you’ll let Marinette go.”

A flare of anger appeared on her face before she replaced it with a cruel smile; I wondered if I’d overcooked it a bit, since Adrien wasn’t known for playing hardball. “All right,” she nodded slowly. “I’m sending you the link now. Put Chat on so I can give him the details.”

“He can hear you just fine, Lila,” I countered. “He’ll call when he’s sent the files,” I added before killing the connection.

Relaxing slightly as Peter leapt to my side, I sorted through multiple emotions. “She’s after you,” Peter said as he slid the wig off, revealing his mop of hair. “Why?”

“If I knew that, I’d have a better sense of how much danger we’re in. I agree, though; she doesn’t need the files she’s asking for. I’m convinced now that there will be a side attack to get me here at the mansion.”

“Too bad you won’t be here,” Peter smiled as he started to pull off the gloves.

“I’d love to see her face when she finds the mansion armed to the teeth but otherwise empty,” I laughed. “Do you mind helping me with a little breaking and entering this evening?”

“Normally I stop people from that,” he laughed as he made for the bathroom. “Give me just a moment to change into something more appropriate for a grand theft.”


	9. Chat Burglar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat stages an overnight break-in at House of Gabriel, prowling for what Lila is_ says _she’s after while suspecting there’s more to the story. With Spider-Man lending an assist, he begins to piece together what the actual agenda is for his nemesis._

Darkness covers all sorts of sins, including a certain recognizable American superhero who had no business webslinging his way across the skyline of Paris beside Chat Noir; keeping as high as we could above the busy streets, I fervently hoped the moonless evening and the human propensity not to look _up_ would allow us to move somewhat freely without drawing undue notice, though if Alya happened to be out and about, all bets were off. Crossing the city as fast as we could, we landed side-by-side with matching _thumps_ on the rooftop of the building across from House of Gabriel. It took me a moment to register it was the very spot Ladybug and I had used weeks earlier to try and determine if my bodyguard had been moonlighting as Hawkmoth; with a wry smile, I thought how naïve we had been at the time.

Turning, I saw my spider-themed friend in that weird crouch that only he could do, reminding me just how limber he was. Glancing down at my own cat-crouch, I realized I might be the pot calling the kettle black and opted for burying the pun I’d queued up in the back of the litterbox. “That’s it,” I said, nodding my feline ear-topped mane toward the modern glass-and-steel building Gabriel had built.

Though it was hard to tell with his mask on, it felt to me like he was frowning. “Doesn’t really fit in with Paris, does it?”

“Not really my father’s style,” I sighed. “I was too young at the time, but I believe something historic was knocked over to build our headquarters.”

“I’m surprised Paris doesn’t have laws against that kind of thing,” Spidey replied. “We do in New York.”

“Oh, we do,” I sighed again. “But when you are a significant donor to the Mayor…”

“Ah.”

I turned my feline eyes and their night vision on the windows of the building. “I’m not seeing anything unusual. But this would be a good time to surprise me with one of your techno gizmos that could detect, oh, I dunno, humans wandering around over there.”

Spider-Man laughed. “If I’d known I was going to be joining a cat burglar tonight, I would have packed my _other_ utility belt.”

“A feline can hope.”

“That’s not to say I don’t have a few arachnid tricks up my sleeve,” he continued. I turned back toward him just as he pulled a small cylinder from his belt. “Am I right in remembering you have access to floorplans on your baton?”

“Yeah,” I said as I slid it from my back and popped it open. “But I know every square inch over there,” I added, slightly confused at his request. “I’m not sure—”

“Pull it up,” Spidey prodded gently as he fiddled with the cylinder.

“All right.”

Quickly navigating my baton’s menu, it took just a few seconds for me to access the construction plans and then the floor map of House of Gabriel; twisting the small screen toward Spider-Man, I raised a masked eyebrow questioningly. “Here you go.”

“This is kind of a beta test,” he warned me as he turned away from the building. “You might want to lean away for a moment in case it explodes.”

“Beta--?” I asked with alarm.

“Hold on,” he interrupted as he shook and then gently tossed the device into the air.

I watched in amazement as it slowed and then hovered a few meters above us; a moment later, it dropped down toward me, just fast enough that I was tempted to extend my baton and swat it away. Somehow, that seemed like the wrong response, so instead my feline eyes tracked it all the way to where it stopped a half meter above my baton. My masked eyebrows went up when a light grid appeared over the baton’s tiny screen, effectively scanning the displayed map; my jaw dropped when the device managed to trigger the paging function and proceed through every last tidbit of data my trusty baton was able to provide on House of Gabriel.

I looked back at Spider-Man as the light clicked off and the small cylinder spun slightly before shooting across the parking lot. “I am _so_ getting one of those RF-blocking sleeves for my credit card now.”

“Wise decision,” Spidey laughed. He had a small round monitor in his gloved hands and was somehow getting live video as what I now realized was a micro drone buzzed ever closer to House of Gabriel. “I’ve been working on these for a while,” he said with a trace of pride. “An earlier version saved me from an untimely demise at the hands of Doc Ock a while back.”

I felt my masked visage frown. “Doctor _who_?”

“I wish,” Spider-Man laughed. “Now _there_ is a cool science fiction character. No, Doctor Octopus is a rather ugly supervillain with some even uglier robotic arms. He’s rather a handful each time I go up against him.”

“Well played,” I laughed. “Although to be honest, I wouldn’t mind getting help from the Doctor with that excessively long scarf. I’ve never really liked any of the others that came after him.”

Spidey turned toward me. “I’ve got a prototype of the sonic screwdriver,” he said excitedly.

“You… you _what?_ ”

“It’s not quite right,” he continued. “As you can imagine, it’s a bit complicated creating the technological equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, but I think—”

The little monitor beeped out a warning, and we both looked down. “What is it?” I asked.

“I lost the signal,” he replied, the frown evident in his voice. “Looks like your father was pretty consistent about his paranoia,” he added as he looked up at me. “The telemetry says as soon as the Spider Drone approached the ventilation shaft it was going to use to enter the building, it encountered a jamming field; the stream ended a millisecond later.”

I rolled my eyes. “I should have anticipated that.” I glanced back at the building. “Well, it _would_ have been nice to have had air cover—”

“It may still work once we get inside,” Spidey interrupted. “The signal blocker is interrupting transmissions _from_ the building. Not from within.”

“Oh,” I smiled. “Well, in that case, let’s go break in.” 

“Front door?” Spidey asked as he slipped the small monitor back into his belt. “That seems a bit too obvious, even if you do want Lila to see your progress.”

“Agreed. No, I had my eyes on the seventh-floor men’s room.”

Spidey did his version of staring, dumbfounded. “I expected you to say something like ‘loading dock’ or ‘secret lab entrance.’”

“Sorry to disappoint,” I chuckled. “And while I now wonder if there is, indeed, a secret lab over there, the loading dock is one of the more highly guarded parts of the building. Even with our combined talents, I’m not sure we could get past the security there.” I extended my baton slightly for helicopter mode. “If the massive number of windows in that building over there hadn’t been a clue, Gabriel believed natural lighting was conducive to the creative process. As a result, there is a handy set of functioning windows – frosted, of course – in every restroom.”

“What on earth did he think happened in the bathroom?”

“Who knows,” I laughed as I leapt out into the night. “Follow me.”

I helicoptered across the parking lot, and then landed on one of the decorative granite pillars that hid some of the steel superstructure required as a result of so much glass. Driving my claws into the stone, I crawled up slightly toward a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows that were, indeed, frosted; with his ability to cling to any surface, Spidey actually one-upped me and alighted on the glass itself, mocking me perhaps by doing so upside down. Reaching over, I snuck a claw beneath a slight opening and popped the window out; running my paw under the edge, I pulled it outward until it locked.

That made me frown, for the opening was barely more than a half-meter, purposefully designed for safety reasons not to open any wider. “This might be tight,” I said.

“Maybe not,” Spidey replied thoughtfully. “If you give me a moment, I think I can get this off the hinges…”

“Do _what_ \--?”

I’d barely asked the question before Spider-Man had moved around and below the window, crawling faster than I thought possible. Carefully reaching his gloved hands beneath the opening I’d made, he grunted for a moment as he pushed the window upward and was rewarded with a slight metallic _clunk_. Unfortunately, the window immediately started to fall forward, and he grunted again as he tried to balance it.

“A little… help…” he gasped.

Instantly, I gripped the side of the window with a free paw, keeping the other firmly planted in the granite. Unlike certain spider-themed heroes, my boots had to press themselves into the stone to try and keep myself from slipping beneath the impressive weight of the glass. “Whatever you are thinking…” I said through teeth gritted with the effort of keeping the window steady, “please… hurry…”

I heard his webshooters sing out, and caught a strand as it glistened in what little light we had; they sung again, and again, and after the fourth cycle, I felt the glass shift slightly. “Can you reach it another half meter?” Spider-Man asked. “To the right?”

“Yes,” I said as I slowly slid the window in the direction he’s asked. I felt it move, and then hit something soft yet resilient.

“That’s got it, you can let go now,” Spider-Man said with relief. “It’s my version of suction cups,” he explained. “The webbing will hold for about ninety minutes.”

“Should be long enough,” I said as I flipped around the edge of the window frame and landed in a crouch on the tile of the bathroom. Spidey joined me a moment later. “Unless it isn’t.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” he laughed as he retrieved his small monitor once again. “There it is… yep. I can connect to it from inside no problem. Scanning the floors now…”

In what felt like a long ten minutes, Spider-Man’s drone quickly zipped through all eight floors of the building, carefully cataloging any activity before finding a network closet that it could access from the air vent. A moment later, we knew where the night guards where _and_ had gained access to the security feeds throughout the building. My respect for the teenager beneath the mask crouched next to me grew an order of magnitude. “You designed this on the side?”

“Yeah,” he replied a bit sheepishly. “I don’t have much of a social life, as you might imagine.”

“Being a superhero can do that.” I felt myself arching a masked eyebrow at Spider-Man. “I can’t believe there isn’t someone you might want to get to know better?”

“Well, I don’t have a Ladybug in my life, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied wistfully. “I did come close to asking someone out a few weeks ago, though.”

“What happened?”

Spidey shifted slightly, which I’d learned was what he did when he was uncomfortable. “I… uh… can we not talk about this right now?”

“You can’t leave me hanging like that,” I teased as I crept to the door. “But yes, we can circle back. Gabriel’s office is up on eight, but I think we might have better luck accessing the network down on five.”

“Five?” Spidey asked as we slipped into the darkened corridor. The wall sconces my father had favored were on low, barely providing any illumination. Certainly not enough to see the tiny pattern of the company logo in the wallpaper.

“It’s the pattern design and prototyping department,” I explained as we reached the stairwell and quickly entered. Taking the steps three at a time with each vault, I tried not to groan as Spidey slipped down beside me on a line of webbing. “We call it the ‘design studio.’ There are workstations at each table for the designers, and I suspect less likely to be where Lila expects me to go.”

Landing on his feet beside me and the door to the fifth floor, he nodded. “You think she’s here? Watching?”

“Not physically, _yet_ ; but she will be – just as soon as she discovers Adrien’s not at the mansion. My first guess is she has staked out the corner suite Gabriel used – electronically, most likely, or some sort of magic her Miraculous allows. My second guess is that she’s monitoring where his assistant would have worked. Both spots would have been the obvious go-to points for Adrien to have told ‘Chat’ about.” I sighed. “To be honest, I’m hoping she comes here. If she does, it means she’s either left Marinette unguarded—”

“Which isn’t likely.”

“—agreed—or, she’d have brought Marinette _here_.”

“Why?”

“Leverage,” I shrugged. “At the end of the day, Lila knows how I feel about Marinette. She’ll twist it if she can in order to suit her purposes.” I felt a Chat smile appear. “What she doesn’t realize is bringing Marinette here is part of my devious plan.”

“Clever. And clear,” he said as I pulled the door open and confirmed what his small monitor indicated. “But that can’t be your only guesses.”

“No, but those are the most likely. My hunch is hacking from the design studio isn’t exactly on her radar.” I paused at an intersection before scampering across the hallway and pressing myself against the relative safety of the glass wall outside the design studio. Dropping to all fours, I skulked to the glass double doors marking the entrance to the studio, but paused as Spidey put a glove to my shoulder.

“How closely do you think she’s working with your father?”

“Closer than I realized,” I replied.

I unzipped my costume pocket and retrieved Adrien’s identity badge; waving it over the keypad, the light went from red to flashing amber. Tapping my personal code into the keypad with a claw, the light went green and the double doors mechanically slid open with a sigh. Scampering around them and into the far larger studio, I paused to take my bearings; two dozen long tables were set about the space, with small workstations beside each, their flatscreen monitors dark. Pattern dummies were everywhere, showcasing some of the outfits I knew were planned for next summer or fall, and oddly, my feline nose picked up the fact that a coffee pot had been left on in the far corner of the room. The massive windows were facing the Seine, giving the area a unique view that was only topped by the one from Gabriel’s office up on eight.

My masked feline eyes caught the security camera in the corners of the room, then glanced to Spider-Man. “Disabled already,” he replied to my unanswered question. “Or, more accurately, replaying the loop of the five minutes before we entered.”

“Nice.”

Randomly choosing a station, I flipped my tail over the seat of the chair and settled in, jiggling the mouse to activate the monitor. The irony of a cat using a mouse wasn’t lost on me, bringing a smile to my face as the network login appeared and I entered my credentials. It took a few moments for the station to come to life, but in short order I was looking at my corporate desktop. I spent as little time as I could at House of Gabriel – I was still in school, after all – so I wasn’t entirely familiar with the layout of the network. I could feel the clock ticking as I sorted through the network shares, but ultimately found the folder Lila had mentioned.

And discovered even my level of access wouldn’t open it.

“ _Fils de pute_ ,” I breathed.

“Since you reverted to French, can I assume it’s bad?”

“Sorry,” I sighed as I pushed back from the keyboard. “Apparently even the CEO of the company can’t access that folder,” I explained as I looked at Spidey. “If it were daytime, I could call someone from IT.”

Spidey cocked his head. “Would Lila have known you couldn’t get in?”

“It goes to your earlier question,” I replied as I pinched the bridge of my masked nose. Something of a headache was threatening to appear, a throbbing warning behind my feline eyes. “Gabriel or Nathalie would have set the security on that folder. If he’s the one that asked her to get the contents, he would have known Adrien can’t get to it – unless Nathalie did on her own.”

“So, if she _did_ know, does this prove it was a feint to get Adrien?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “And if she doesn’t, it tells me that Gabriel is using her for his own purposes. I have to admit, _that_ feels more like the Hawkmoth I know and love.”

“Holy,” Spider-Man straightened. “This all some sort of wild misdirection, isn’t it?”

“Welcome to my universe,” I sighed. “Your multi-armed villain is sounding better and better. Want to swap?”

“Not really, no,” he laughed.

“Any chance your hacking skills are better than mine?” I asked. “I kind of want to know what is in those files, but I’m not sure I’m up to the task.” I smiled slightly. “Assuming curiosity won’t kill this cat.”

“Or his spider friend. Let me give it a shot,” he said as we swapped places.

Being a cat and all, I leapt to the flat design table and perched to watch but had barely folded myself into my patient cat stance when my baton buzzed. Sliding it from the small of my back, I popped it open and nodded. “Well, that answers _that_ question.”

“Which was?” Spidey asked, partially distracted as he searched for a slot to insert a small USB-sized gizmo into the side of the monitor. I wondered for the millionth time if his utility belt had magical storage properties – or if his muscles were more due having to carry the extra weight of all his gadgets than webslinging across New York.

“Whether Lila would go after Adrien,” I replied as I tapped to silence the alarm at the mansion. “If I read this right, _all_ of the windows to my bedroom have been breached, and the sprinkler system has engaged.” I looked at the multiplying warnings scrolling up the baton’s tiny screen and laughed ruefully. “Glad I got what I wanted from the closet earlier. But I suspect once she’s done burning down the mansion, she’ll be on her way here.”

“Then I’d better hurry.”


	10. Hello, Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _As he takes on Lila, Chat endeavors to shift the playing field toward one that favors the Black Cat of Destruction._

Lila announced her arrival by blasting through the wall of glass windows facing the Seine; if I’d needed any further evidence I had frustrated her with my sleight of hand, the tiny shards of glass raining down upon my mane seemed proof positive I’d made the right decision. Not only that, it confirmed my suspicion that she was not after whatever was on the House of Gabriel network she’d wanted me to hack into, but rather she needed Adrien himself. As I scrambled to duck beneath one of the wide pattern tables, I wondered why she’d gone to all the trouble of kidnapping Chat and Marinette, for it seemed to me there would have been hundreds of easier ways to get to Adrien herself that didn’t rely on using Chat Noir. After all, she was a classmate of mine and sometimes on-set partner at my photo shoots; it’s not like she didn’t have ample opportunity to connect with my alter ego. Always suspicious of her intentions, I didn’t discount there was still some angle I wasn’t yet able to see where she needed _both_ Chat Noir and Adrien; sadly, she would never see the duo together. 

If I could help it.

Leaping away from a second shower of glass, I landed next to what was left of the transparent wall separating the design studio from the hallway; my night vision picked up Spidey hurriedly wall-walking along the ceiling toward the emergency stairwell, and I vaulted in his direction, mindful of the hurricane that seemed to be on my flapping tail. Leaping again, I came up beside the doorway as he dropped from the ceiling; whether it was from the exertion or the pure terror of her entrance, both of us seemed to be breathing pretty hard.

“Did you get it?” I asked as we slammed through the door and began upward, two steps at a time.

“Yes,” he said. “Whatever it is, it’s huge – it took nearly all of the space I had on the flash drive.”

“And you wiped it off the network?”

“Not even Tony Stark could recover it now,” he said somewhat smugly.

There was no further time for chit-chat as the door below us exploded into thousands of tiny pieces, serving as motivation to get to a better position in order to take on Lila. It was painfully clear she was leaning on her transformation powers, the full spectrum of which we still didn’t know. Two steps above the door for the top floor, I paused and changed my mind on the fly; pivoting easily, I pushed through the door to the executive suite and dashed toward the corner office that had once been my father’s. If Spider-Man thought my swift redirection was unusual, he kept his own council.

Leaning a costumed shoulder down, I smashed through the glass door and skidded to a halt in the middle of the massive space. Oddly, at that moment it occurred to me it was nearly a mirror of his atelier at the mansion, save for having a desk at one end for the inevitable meetings he’d needed to hold with staff. But there was a similar sunken area in the center, with his standard design workstation on a pedestal at one end, facing his own massive set of windows on the river below. As my feline ears picked up the crashing of Lila’s approach, I frantically scanned the space, not entirely knowing what I was looking for until my masked eyes fell on a smaller version of the same painting that hung in the atelier.

Without giving it a second thought, I yanked Spidey to the spot behind the desk and quickly pressed my paws into indentations I knew were going to be there; I barely had time to smile a crafty Chat smile before the floor below us dropped into a hidden elevator shaft, quickly removing us from the office. As we descended, I looked up to see the opening above us iris closed and smiled wider; it was clear to me now that should we get past this little episode with Lila, a more thorough review of the building was in order. 

What Lila left standing, of course.

The lift slowed and then stopped not in a secret lair per se, but what appeared to be a very standard looking basement corridor. Small, recessed lights glowed every few meters, just enough to serve as a guide. “Clever,” I breathed.

“Secret escape hatch?” Spider-Man asked me as we quickly started to run down the corridor.

“Of a sort,” I nodded as we ran. “I presume Gabriel built this so Hawkmoth could come and go unseen.”

Spidey pulled me aside as we reached a metal door at the end of the hallway; it was hard not to smile at the decidedly normal illuminated exit sign hanging above it. “I thought you wanted Lila to bring Marinette _here_ ,” he asked, confusion in his voice.

“I did.”

“Then why are we _leaving_?”

“We’re not,” I smiled wider as I pushed the door open.

“It kinda feels like we are,” he added, nodding his head at the darkness beyond.

As I suspected, the door opened directly into an arched sewer tunnel; a river of foul-smelling liquid faintly fluoresced, and my feline nose wrinkled as a result. My masked eyes quickly detected which way the current was flowing, causing me to nod slowly. “As much as I enjoyed trashing House of Gabriel,” I continued as we slipped around the door and started trotting upstream along the small stone walkway, “I need a spot more conducive to taking down Lila. I suspect there is a junction room ahead much like the one we used to take out Nathalie a few months back.”

“You seem to spend a lot of time in the sewers,” Spidey chuckled. “You’re more like Rat Noir than Chat Noir.”

I shrugged as the tunnel widened and we entered the junction room. “It’s actually kind of practical. Fighting akumas down here protects the city and the civilians.”

“Still,” Spidey protested as he leapt to the wall and hung, sideways. “She’s not gonna know we took that secret elevator. How is she going to find us?”

I slid my baton out and snapped it open, turning it to the Miraculous tracker; my feline smile grew wider as a small symbol appeared directly above our location. Turning it toward Spider-Man, I explained. “She’s still able to use the Chat Tracker. As it happens, that is a two-way street.”

Spidey glanced upward and I followed, spying the maintenance hatch directly above us. “Do you think she knows you can track her, too?”

“I have to assume she does,” I said as we crept to a far corner and withdrew to the shadows. “Look,” I continued as I scanned and then found the second access point I assumed was in the space. “She’s expecting me, not me and a plus one. Go up that ladder there and grab Marinette.”

“Grab--?” he spluttered. “She’s not going to be idly hanging around waiting for Lila to get back.”

“No,” I nodded. “Lila will have stashed her somewhere close. But she’ll also assume Marinette is helpless and won’t be able to escape.”

“Which she’s anything but,” Spidey added as he scuttled toward the hatch. “Okay. But I’m coming right back after I’ve rescued your princess.”

I smiled wider. “You heard that, did you?”

Somehow, I knew he was rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I did.” 

There was a metallic grinding as he pushed the hatch open, and then he was gone. I waited a moment before twisting my baton and popping open my hidden compartment; a moment later, I was diving into the sordid water in aqua mode, and kicked toward the brick bottom. I had a hunch I knew what Lila’s tactics were, and if I played my card right, might get her to confirm what her Miraculous abilities might be. Stroking across the channel, I shifted and slowly made my way upward at the far edge, intending to poke my mane just above the surface; I was halfway there when I felt a dramatic change in the temperature of the water around me.

Instincts took over, and I quickly tried to propel myself up and out of the water, but I was a fraction too slow responding. The rapidly freezing water surrounded me in it’s icy embrace faster than I could smash it away with my paws; I’d barely gotten my shoulders above the surface when I became a Chat ice cube. I had one arm free, and scratched away as best as I could, but without my claws it was clear I wasn’t going anywhere fast.

Sighing, I looked up and frowned at Lila, who was standing above me. “Well played,” I smiled.

“That was a stupid move,” she smirked. “You seem to have forgotten my command of the elements from our earlier encounter.”

“No,” I smiled wider. “I didn’t.”


	11. Alternative Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Marinette finds herself an unwilling hostage as Lila continues with her plan._

To put it quite bluntly, Marinette was pissed.

If she were truly being honest with herself, her anger at Lila had been simmering from the moment she’d watched her take out Chat in that faux forest they’d become trapped within; her feline had tried admirably to protect her, and seeing him go down like a rag doll had torn at her horribly. She’d made a scene as befitting an upset girlfriend, dropping herself to Chat’s chest and sobbing uncontrollably; it had provided the cover for her to confirm her partner was only unconscious and not injured in any way that was easily detectable. Another moment more and she would have been able to reach his baton and maybe have done something about the situation, but Lila, who seemed to be reaching the end of her transformation, hit her in the back with the same whatever-it-was that had knocked Chat insensate.

She’d awoken, predictably, at the Bakery, strapped to a chair in her family’s living quarters. From the pounding at the basement door a story below, she assumed her parents had been locked in with the supplies. Though she had assumed Lila had planned on using her as leverage over Chat, what she’d not realized was Lila had been aware that Adrien ostensibly was now living with her family. She’d been untied long enough to send Chat his next set of instructions, including a few codewords to try and prompt him; seeing him on the video call a short while later confirmed he’d understood her message.

Well, _technically_ she was seeing Adrien, and she assumed she knew who had donned the faux Chat costume and had prudently perched in part of Adrien’s old room dark enough not to reveal the swap. She had worried that the lack of glowing eyes in the darkness would tip off Lila, but in the end, the ploy had worked – nearly better than she had planned, for Lila had quickly bound her back up again and then, like a sack of potatoes, had carried her across Paris to the Agreste mansion.

Marinette had thought her first opportunity to escape and transform to Ladybug had appeared when Lila had set her down not-so-gently on the tile roof of the building across from the mansion; apparently, Lila assumed she’d try to make a break for it and had used her powers to conjure a green vine out of nowhere to lash her firmly to a chimney. That alone would have been easily overcome, given the better-than-average strength she gained while transformed; sadly, perhaps afraid that Marinette would cry out for rescue, Lila had used a little more magic to thoughtfully add a leafy gag for good measure. She’d been unable to do more than grunt, let alone speak the magic words needed to transform.

Tikki had appeared the moment Lila left, but the diminutive kwami was no match for the seemingly living greenery embracing Marinette, leaving the two of them to watch in despair as Lila systematically trashed the Agreste mansion. Once the flames had begun to lick out of the upper stories, Lila had returned and somehow managed to detach Marinette from the chimney while keeping her firmly within the grasp of the ever-tightening vines surrounding her. Carried once more like unwelcome cargo, it wasn’t hard to divine Lila’s next stop; despite her situation, she’d found a moment to smile at how her kitty had managed a little ingenuity and a lot of misdirection to attempt to even the odds.

Landing a few blocks from House of Gabriel, Lila stashed Marinette on a nearby rooftop, ensuring that the vines had her firmly within their grasp before heading off to take on Chat. It was clear fairly immediately that working against the vines was useless, despite her rising anger and it’s infusion of adrenaline into her civilian muscles. Tikki had even tried to get her small hands beneath the gag, prying with all her might to make just enough space for Marinette to say the phrase, but the kwami had finally collapsed against her holder, exhausted with the effort.

Anger overwhelmed Marinette. Anger that she’d been caught unawares by the one person she quite probably loathed the most in the entire universe. Anger that someone like Gabriel Agreste had been grooming her, pulling Lila into his machinations so she could be useful to him. Anger that she was no further into understanding what, exactly, Lila was going after – for though the tasks she’d set out for Chat seemed to have been designed to flush Adrien out, her gut told her the ultimate prize was Chat himself. And the only reason she’d need _him_ was to get to Ladybug, but again, she just couldn’t puzzle out the _why._ The only thing that seemed clear was they were well beyond simply breaking out Gabriel from prison.

No, there was more here. And it pissed her off she couldn’t see what it was.

Fuming as she struggled against the vines, she nearly missed the telltale _thwip_ as the line of white webbing shot past her; a moment later, the red-and-blue clad form of Spider-Man landed beside her in that unusual crouch only he seemed able to do. Cocking his masked face at her, he took a moment before leaping toward her and starting to pull at the vines.

“I’m sure Chat would have some sort of pun here,” he laughed mirthlessly, “but I’ve got nothing. And these things don’t seem amenable to letting go,” he added with a grunt.

Mute as she was, Marinette could only motion with her eyes and tried to get Spidey to focus on the gag; it took a moment for him to pick up the motion, but when he did, he immediately went at it with both hands. As gently as he could, he managed to get a finger or two below the massive leaf wrapping the lower part of her face, but struggled to pull it off. 

“This is— _ungh!_ —really tight,” he said between grunts. He let go and flipped away from her, considering the mess once more. “I need to get you into the fight,” he said thoughtfully as his head swiveled around the rooftop they were on. Nodding, he leapt toward her again. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’m going to stick some webbing to this leaf here, and try and use that antenna aerial over there to get some leverage. If you get enough space, do your thing. Blink if that works for you.”

Marinette blinked, and Spidey leapt away from her. “Okay, here it goes,” he said before lifting his wrists.

Two weblines hit home and he immediately grabbed them and looped them around the aerial he’d pointed out. Pressing his booted feet against the tile, he started to pull, hard, grunting with the effort; slowly, the aerial started to bend, and he grunted further; Marinette watched in amazement as his biceps bulged with the effort, then was amazed even more to feel the vine starting to give way.

 _Come on, come ON!_ she mentally encouraged Spider-Man.

The webbing started to creak ominously, catching the web-slinger’s attention; he swiftly turned and shot a third line and flipped it around to add to the first two, and grunted again with the effort. “I… think… this is working,” he said. “But you might… want to make the most… of your moment…”

Just when she thought the aerial was going to snap, she felt the breath of fresh air across her lips. Without wasting a second, she immediately cried: “Tikki – spots on! Lucky Charm!”

As she hoped, the red wave of transformation washed over her, and nearly immediately, a polka-dotted weed sprayer dropped out of the sky, clattering across the tile toward Spider-Man. The weblines snapped at that moment, tossing Spidey back and trapping Ladybug once more behind the leafy gag. But she’d done her part – now it was up to the hero from New York to figure out the rest.

Spider-Man had hit the tile hard, and was slow to get up. She could tell he was a bit stunned and worried he might have slammed his head hard enough to get into concussion range; still, he managed to shake his head and then quickly leap toward the weed sprayer. “I may be a city kid,” he said, the smile evident in his voice, “but I know what this is and how to use it.”

Pumping it twice, he picked up the wand and shot a greenish fluid at Ladybug; the magical concoction immediately wilted the live vines, causing them to shrivel away from her trapped form. In mere seconds she was lying prone on the tile, free of the vines but still somehow bound hand and foot. Ladybug shelved her concerns about what _that_ meant as Spidey moved to her side and quickly untied her.

“Thank you,” she said as she finally stood, rubbing where her wrists were raw from the rope.

“My pleasure,” as he joined her. “Are you okay? Do you need a minute?”

“I’m furious,” she replied honestly. “And I do need a minute to recharge. But _only_ a minute.”

Something in her expression caught Spider-Man, and he stepped back slightly. “I wouldn’t want to be this Lila person, I think,” he said softly.

“No,” Ladybug replied. “You don’t. Let me feed Tikki and then we’ll rescue Chat.”

“What makes you think he needs rescuing?” Spidey asked.

“Because,” she smiled, a cold thing actually, “it was part of our plan.”

“No,” Spidey said after a moment. “I really wouldn’t want to be Lila.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the missed posing - the new year has really messed with my plans! Also note that new content for _After_ will appear on Tuesdays starting this week. --ep


	12. Frosted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat deals with the chilly hand he’s been dealt while he awaits Ladybug._

I wasn’t sure what was worse: being stuck inside a giant ice cube, forced to listen to Lila drone on endlessly about her plans for dominating Paris, or the fact that my stomach was rumbling rather loudly, a reminder that it had been quite some time since either Plagg or I had recharged. Given how muted the light in the massive sewer junction room was, it was hard to judge the passage of time in any truly effective way; glancing up at Lila, I realized she was all that stood between a very hungry feline and the homemade beef stew with all the trimmings Tom had happily proclaimed would be our dinner that evening. 

It was never good to get between Chat Noir and food, a lesson that Marinette had learned fairly early in our relationship. Partly I’d been making up for lost time, given how restrictive the diet Gabriel had put me on had been, mindful of his need to keep me to a certain figure in order to model for the family business; long before she’d known who was under the mask, Marinette had sensed how hard it had been for me to make up any calories the massive uptick in my metabolism the Miraculous created. She’d quickly taken to plying me with just about anything that was on hand at the bakery – much to my everlasting appreciation. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I would have survived being Chat Noir without the supplemental meals her family had provided the stray kitty she’d adopted. 

Looking up at Lila again from beneath my bangs, I instead saw the massive brown baking dish as Tom pulled it from the oven, caressing it with his massive oven mitts as he placed it on the counter. As Chat, I’d been able to appreciate every particular specialized note of the wondrous smell that would waft away as the lid was removed; the latent sense of smell I possessed as Adrien still made it quite the experience, but nothing could replace the first time I’d sat down for a proper meal with Marinette’s family as Chat, able to experience Tom’s cooking with my enhanced sense of taste. Thankfully, Tom had long gotten over being akumatized from that disastrous brunch that none of us ever talked about; oddly, as nice as he was with Adrien, he’d dropped more than a few hints that Marinette already had a boyfriend. I wondered a bit about how that final reveal might go, whenever that actually took place. 

Trying hard not to sigh, I felt my patented Chat snark beginning to bubble over and tried to tamp it down; Marinette had been pretty clear I was to keep Lila occupied – at least, as clear as she could have been, given her every word had been monitored by Lila. 

_When the shoe fits_ , she had said. 

Groaning inwardly, I tried not to think about that particular akuma, for it had been one in a long line of episodes where I’d had to play court jester in order to distract long enough for Ladybug to either figure out her Lucky Charm or to trundle off to get backup from Master Fu. In that particular case, I’d allowed myself to become captured by a cobbler Hawkmoth had tapped to take the Heroes of Paris on; by the time Ladybug had arrived to “rescue” me, she found a rather irate feline trussed up beneath a massive ten-ton steel-toed work boot poised to squash me into oblivion – an obvious Samaritan snare designed to get her to give up her earrings in order to save her partner. 

The fact I could have Cataclysmed my way out of that mess had been lost on the akuma, something Ladybug had taken full advantage of. Eyeing Lila, I wondered if she’d made the same miscalculation, for though my ring hand might have been encased in the ice, I was reasonably certain I’d be able to use it as designed. 

Except I couldn’t, at least, not until Ladybug gave me her signal. 

Without question, I knew Ladybug was free and had a plan; call it a bonus feline sense, or just an astute understanding of how our partnership worked, but whatever it was, it allowed me to continue the somewhat bored-looking façade I was providing to our nemesis while actually counting down to the inevitable triggering of the plan by my partner, my feline muscles tensing beneath the ice for the moment I could spring into action. Maybe it was good that my tail was encased in ice, for I was sure it would have been twitching in anticipation of finally sinking my claws into Lila. Had I been wearing them. Which I wasn’t at the moment, since I’d been mere minutes earlier actually swimming in the water that was now rather solidly embracing me. 

Some part of me was still following along with Lila’s tirade – it was interesting how long she was willing to monologue, given what we knew about the Miraculous she seemed to have obtained; despite my bored expression (which I knew was driving her nuts), my feline ears were attuned for that particular chirping that would tell me a shift in her plans would be imminent. One way or the other, I’d be getting out of that ice. 

Lila had just turned and started what was by my count the fifteenth pass over the bricked walkway when I felt the peculiar sensation of my baton buzzing against both the small of my back and the ice it was encased within. I tried to keep my face impassive, but inside, I recognized it for the sign it was. 

_Time for the next phase,_ I thought, unable to keep the grin from my face. 

Unfortunately, Lila caught my change in expression and paused at a spot just in front of me. “Have I said something amusing, alley cat?” 

“Hard to say,” I said with somber seriousness. “To be honest, I never really know when you’re lying, and when you’re actually telling the truth. As far as I’m concerned, you probably aren’t even remotely connected to Hawkmoth and are just using his disappearance as a way to fill the void yourself.” 

The expression on Lila’s face went stony. 

_That was easier than I thought it would be_ . 

“I mean, come on? Why would Hawkmoth choose you to be his backup plan? You’re a teenager for crying out loud. What on earth would you be able to do to further his plans?” 

“Age isn’t everything,” she fairly spat. “You’re clearly not an adult, either.” 

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I grinned. “I work awfully hard at it.” 

“It wasn’t meant as praise.” 

“Says you,” I chuckled. My baton buzzed again. “Look, why don’t you level with me. What is this all really about? You don’t really need Adrien Agreste. And you apparently don’t even really need me.” 

Lila blinked. “Wha--? I’ve got you right now!” 

“Yeah, whatever,” I sighed, looking at my gloved fingers on my free paw and wishing I had my claws. “You’ve not done much with me either time I was under your control.” 

“I made you get those files for me!” she thundered. “And you’re the bait to get Ladybug!” 

“Like that is gonna work,” I rolled my eyes. “You think you’re the first one to try the old ‘capture Chat’ ploy?” I asked, before my grin widened. “Wow. You really do think Ladybug is about to appear and save my furry butt.” 

I tried hard to tamp down my pleasure at seeing the rage reflected on Lila’s face, for I knew from my interactions with her as Adrien, what she hated more than anything was to be called out on, well, anything. I calculated she was close to needing to somehow prove to me her plan was going swimmingly, and put my final card on the table. 

“You’ve got a lot to learn if you want to be the new Hawkmoth,” I said as I looked away. “Frankly, I expected more from you. But that’s okay. LB and I have been doing this longer than you have anyway.” 

“You think you have this all figured out, eh?” 

My baton buzzed a final time and I smiled to myself before turning back to Lila. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Have I?” 

“Not in the least!” 

I threw my paw up in front of my face as she pointed both hands at me and blasted the ice away using a burst of white-hot energy, almost as if she’d channeled the sun itself. I was ready for it and leapt away from the debris, dropping my aqua-mode transformation as I sailed into the open space; it was an intentional mistake, for as the wave washed over me, I was momentarily blinded – just long enough for Lila to tackle me in mid-air. The two of us tumbled together and crashed upon the icy surface, skittering apart and away from each other, despite her attempt to gain some sort of purchase with her hands. For my part, I dug long grooves in the ice with the welcome return of my claws, arresting my movement and allowing me to leap away and onto the stony walkway rimming the space. 

Staying on all fours, I burst into motion, hurling my feline body down the corridor as fast as I could. I didn’t have to turn around to know Lila had taken up pursuit; instead, I focused on the tunnel, looking for telltale landmarks. As I’d told Spider-Man earlier, we’d spent an inordinate amount of time fighting akumas in the catacombs beneath Paris, enough that I knew them well enough to no longer need my baton’s map. Careening around a corner, I used a claw to stay close to the wall and then leapt upward to the access point I’d been looking for; unsurprisingly, the cover was off, and I smiled to think at how well I had guessed what the plan was. 

Grabbing the rung of the ladder, I glanced backwards to see Lila rounding the corner, fire in her eyes and, more importantly, about to pour forth from her fingertips. Tensing, I flung myself upward and into the open space of the Trocadero plaza, twisted in midair and hauled out my baton in a smooth movement so I could helicopter sideways and away from hole. Landing in a cat crouch, I flipped and watched Lila fly up and out herself, landing in the wide part of the plaza just a few meters from me. 

“Pop goes the weasel,” I smiled. 

Whatever response she had planned died on her lips, for while her attention had been focused on me (intentionally, of course), Spidey had landed behind her and deftly cocooned her in a thick layer of his white webbing. The force knocked her sideways and onto her side, and she spluttered as she tipped over. 

Ladybug landed beside the prone body, and I took that as my cue. One quick flip with a double twist and I was beside her in my patented cat crouch. I had a pithy pun ready to go when Spider-Man cocked his head at Ladybug. 

“I thought you said the plan was to rescue Chat?” he asked her. 

Glancing at me with a sly smile, my partner replied: “That was her plan – never mine. This kitty knows better than to get captured by a villain,” she laughed as she reached down to scratch behind an ear. “Don’t you?” 

Whatever comeback I had was lost as I leaned into her touch and sighed. “I would never presume to dispute you.” 

“That’s smart.” 

It was sort of fun ignoring Lila’s howls of protest, but at length my partner reached down to yank an unassuming hairpin from Lila’s hair. In the blink of an eye, the wave of detransformation washed over Lila; When the glow faded, Ladybug was eyeing a small yellow-and-black kwami. 

“Well, hello there,” I smiled at the nonplussed little god as I stood. “Who are you?” 

“My name is Suzaku,” the tiny kwami said, it’s voice rather powerful despite its diminutive size. “=I am happy to be of service, but first… where am I?” It asked, eyes wide as it took in the Trocadero. 

I looked at Ladybug. “You don’t know?” she asked. “Didn’t your holder tell you?” 

“I was activated so quickly, there was no time to talk,” it replied as it looked around. “I’ve been asleep for… well, a very long time as you humans think of it.” 

“You’re in Paris, France,” I said. “What is the last thing you remember?” 

If it was possible, the tiny kwami shuddered; Lila was complaining, loudly, but all three of us were ignoring her in favor of the tiny god. “My last holder had renounced me and was in the process of hiding the Miraculous. The palace guards were coming to take her away… she wouldn’t let me help…” 

I looked at Ladybug again. “Where was this palace?” 

“I think it was called… Versailles.” Pain was in the tiny face of the kwami. “Do you know where the others are?” 

“Other? Kwami?” 

“Yes,” it said, eyeing me more closely before flitting to Ladybug. “You two are obviously holders, though I don’t know about you,” it declared after flitting to Spider-Man before returning to me. “So you understand what I’m asking. Where are my three brethren? Do you have them? Are they with your Guardian?” 

I turned to Ladybug. “Uh oh,” I said, my masked eyes darting to Lila. “That might explain her powers. You don’t suppose—“ 

My words were left hanging in the air as Lila murmured something under her breath; a fraction of a moment later, a massive whirlwind started around her, flinging the three of us to the far corners of the plaza. More importantly, it appeared to have shredded the webbing Spider-Man has spun around her in the process. I tried to flip up and leap toward Lila, but the wind knocked me back into a raised wall, momentarily stunning me. By the time I regained my senses, both the wind and Lila had vanished. 

Ladybug knelt beside me. “You okay?” 

“I was,” I frowned. “I think we have a far bigger problem than we realized.” 

Ladybug swore in a most un-ladylike way. I had to admit, I kind of agreed with her. 


	13. Interregnum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Chat and Marinette use the disquieting disappearance of Lila to regroup – and to focus on a more pressing issue._

What was left of the mansion I used to call home looked even more desolate beneath the dark, moonless night. I didn’t need my enhanced night vision to determine that Lila had been pretty thorough during her little temper tantrum earlier; save for a partial wall that might have once stood behind the kitchen, the rest had been reduced to a pile of still-smoking rubble. Myriad emotions jostled for attention, telegraphed perhaps by the way my tail was refusing to remain still. Despite all of the evil that had transpired beneath the roof of the Agreste mansion, it was still hard to take in the enormity of the destruction, or to contemplate what it meant to my future.

As I turned to go, I thought it was rather fortunate that the massive crypt beneath the mansion hadn’t been exposed by the fire; not that there was much there other than dying vines, but it would have been yet one more uncomfortable disclosure for Adrien to have to deal with. Ladybug and I had plenty on our plate at the moment; I didn’t need to add to our troubles. Shaking my wild mane, partly in disgust, partly in resignation, I slid my baton out and leapt into the night to face a particularly thorny one.

Soaring over the nighttime rooftops, I replayed snippets of my conversation with Ladybug after Lila disappeared; while we were certain she was just temporarily off the grid, neither of us had a sense of what might get her to make a reappearance. Master Fu had been somewhat helpful in telling us that the kwami we’d recovered was, indeed, part of a special set of four from a unique Miracle Box that he’d assumed had been lost in the fire at the monastery. While not quite as powerful as the Cat or Bug Miraculous, the four, when combined, could provide the holder with an awesome ability to control the major elements. The Guardian’s explanation had gone a long way toward explaining both the initial trap Lila had spring on us as well as her ability to escape; it worried me that these four jewels had also been part of Gabriel’s collection, though I wondered why he’d eschewed then in favor of the moth.

It was just one of many questions that we seemed to not have answers for. 

Sighing, I realized my feline body was rather exhausted as I made my way back to the Bakery. Aside from briefly transforming to fake out Lila much earlier in the day, I’d been Chat far longer than normal and for once I felt as though even Plagg was at the end of his own impressive stamina. It was an odd sensation, a warning sign that there were limits, even for a superhero powered by a tiny god. Nearing the Bakery – and the requisite delightful aromas that my feline nose could detect from a few kilometers away – a sudden surge of relief mixed with anticipation welled up, coursing through my tired feline muscles to provide a tiny burst of adrenaline to cover the final distance.

I did a perfect four-point Chat landing atop my favored conical chimney, took a deep lungful of the delightful aroma baking bread always seemed to create, then quickly vaulted down to the rooftop patio proper. Marinette had thoughtfully left her fairy lights on, letting them be a beacon to guide me toward my temporary new home; her chaise was empty, though the skylight had been propped open in anticipation of my return. One leap and I was at the edge, and carefully lowered my wild mane upside-down to see if the coast was clear.

“Princess?” I asked, my feline eyes searching her room quickly. 

Seeing she wasn’t there made me frown slightly, but I nonetheless pulled myself around the edge of the skylight and plopped onto her bed in a nearly-silent rush of fabric, my tail snapping behind me. I paused for a moment, a sly smile on my face as I took in the small set of photos she had pinned just above her pillow; I knew they had originally been all of my alter-ego, but in a nod to keeping up appearances, she’d replaced them with action shots of Chat Noir and a few quieter moments when we’d managed to sneak off as a couple prior to her discovering my true identity.

I reached a claw tip toward one of my favorites of the batch, a selfie I had taken with my baton of the two of us – Marinette and Chat, that is – sitting atop the Eiffel Tower watching the sunset. Her smile was pure joy, one that melted me each time I saw her use it with me. So very much had changed for me as a result of that morning she’d found me drenched from falling ingloriously into the water catchment across the street from the Bakery. We still laughed about how I’d been a soggy, shivering feline mess, despite the benefits my costume bestowed on me; I often wondered if Plagg had adjusted something that day to try and prod me toward forging a closer relationship with Marinette. It certainly would have been right up his alley.

Rolling off the bed, I landed in a cat crouch on the floor and started to stand when my feline hearing picked up someone on the ladder below, though I was tired enough to be hard pressed to determine _who_ it was, exactly; while Chat Noir continued to be a regular visitor to Marinette, it would not do for him to be found in his girlfriend’s bedroom. Despite how accommodating Tom and Sabine had been to my superhero alter-ego, we’d come to an arrangement that I would announce myself via the front door like any good boyfriend and not surreptitiously appear on the rooftop. Clearly, my undeserved reputation as a catsanova had preceded me. 

Unfortunately, that had worked extremely well _before_ Adrien had moved in; now that I was crashing with them, Marinette and I had been dealing with the resulting problem that _Chat_ was the boyfriend, not _Adrien_ ; complicating matters, of course, was the tricky way to make sure that one could appear and not draw attention that the _other_ was absent. That was far easier for Adrien, of course, but on more than a few occasions, Tom had suggested Chat stay for dinner when Adrien was, theoretically, just down the hall in the guest room and would also be expected to show up at the table. So far, Chat had managed to wriggle out of most of those invites, but Marinette and I both knew it was just a matter of time before we’d get one I couldn’t refuse.

Leaping upward, I pressed myself into the ceiling being one of the exposed beams in Marinette’s room, trying not to think about the holes my claws were making in the wood; wrapping my tail around a leg, I held my breath as the trapdoor opened. I breathed a bit easier when Marinette’s perfume wafted toward me, and smiled slightly when I heard her talking to no one in particular.

“…long time,” she was saying as she closed the trapdoor. “I’m worried about him. I should probably transform and track him down.”

“He has been through a lot,” came the melodic reply that I knew was Tikki, Marinette’s kwami. “But I think he’s close.”

Unhooking my claws, I dropped down to the floor with a nearly-silent rubbery _thump_. To my surprise, Marinette had her back to me and hadn’t picked up my somewhat stealthy move; Tikki, however, was staring right at me. Smiling, I put a finger to my lips; the small kwami’s eyes crinkled in delight and her head nodded fractionally. Taking a deep breath, I coiled up just as Marinette started to speak again.

“I think I will---oof!” she cried as I tackled her, wrapping my feline body around her protectively as we rolled together across the floor, coming to rest against her dresser with a rather loud _thud_. “Hey!” she cried out again good naturedly. “What was _that_?”

“Feline tendencies,” I explained as I hugged her close. “You were an inviting target that I just couldn’t resist.”

“Really,” she sighed as she reached up to brush away a lock of my hair. “Well, while I am glad you’re back, this is not _exactly_ how I thought I’d greet you.”

“You’re dating a cat,” I smiled crookedly. “A _black_ cat. Expect the unexpected.”

“Clearly,” she sighed. “Hopefully my parents didn’t hear that,” she added, glancing to the trapdoor.

“I am nothing if not discreet—”

Entangled as I was in Marinette, and, admittedly, as distracted as it made me, I missed the sounds of someone on the ladder once more; only when the trapdoor flew open did I start to comprehend the depth of the trouble I’d landed in. Turning at the sound, I saw Tom’s rather bulky figure coming through the opening, followed closely by Sabine.

Expressions of concern on both of their faces shifted slightly; in Tom’s case, it became something closer to shock, though Sabine wore one of amusement, as if we had confirmed something for her. In both cases, I could feel my face beginning to flame on the exposed portions below the mask, and hurriedly extracted myself from Marinette. A quick glance at my girlfriend confirmed that she, too, was blushing hard enough to light the room by herself; between the two of us, Paris had no need for illumination that evening.

Carefully moving another half-meter away from Marinette, I cleared my throat. “Uh—” I started.

Tom looked between the two of us. “Is everyone… okay?” he asked haltingly. 

“We heard a crash downstairs,” Sabine added, that ghost of a smile on her face still. “And… we didn’t know Chat was here…”

“Yeah, about that,” I said, automatically putting my hand to the back of my neck. “I… uh… didn’t intend to stop by tonight, but I… uh… wanted to make sure Marinette was okay after… uh… what happened today…”

“Oh…” Tom said, his face displaying conflicting emotions of disbelief and, perhaps, concern.

“That was very kind of you, Chat,” Sabine interjected, glancing at Tom.

“I know I usually ring the bell,” I continued, tapping my own bell with a claw nervously. “But it was so late, I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Oh…” Tom repeated.

“Her lights were on, so I, uh, well, I guess I surprised her with my arrival,” I said, sticking somewhat close to the truth.

“And I stumbled over my pillow,” Marinette added quickly, pointing to one that happened to be in the middle of the room. “Chat sprung into motion and caught me before I hit the dresser.”

“I’m terribly sorry,” I said.

Tom and Sabine looked to the pillow and then back to the two blushing teens, then each other. Despite being a superhero dealing with a megalomaniac on the loose, in that moment, I felt like a teenager caught after curfew. Which, I supposed, I was.

Something passed between Marinette’s parents, and then they turned back toward us. “We probably need to have a longer discussion about this relationship,” Sabine said gently. “While we both know you’re a gentleman—”

Tom choked and I felt my face flame hotter.

“—there are some ground rules that would apply to anyone seeing our daughter. Superhero or otherwise.”

“Of course,” I nodded, wishing I could actually Cataclysm my way out of the room.

“Come to Sunday Brunch,” Sabine said after looking at her husband. “We’ll talk through it then.”

I blanched. “Sunday… Brunch?” I replied, looking to Tom. “ _This_ Sunday?”

“Yes.”

It was hard to keep my feline eyes from flicking to Marinette. “I would be… honored, thank you.”

“Wonderful,” Tom managed to say, though I wasn’t certain how to read his expression. “Now let me walk you out.”

I glanced at the skylight and then Marinette. “Yes, certainly,” I said, standing. “I’ll see you Sunday, Princess?” I added, taking her hand in my paw.

“Until then, kitty,” she smiled.

Feeling a bit like I was being hustled out of the house, a few moments later I found myself standing in the stairwell outside of their apartment. My tail twitched slightly as I continued down the steps and, for appearance’s sake, sailed out into the night only to make a big loop back to the rear of the Bakery. Landing on the ledge of the guest room’s window, I pulled myself inside the darkened room and dropped to the carpet. 

It was only then that I had allowed myself to contemplate the invitation I had feared receiving had finally arrived – and that there was no way Chat could wriggle out of it this time. Sighing, I dropped my transformation and slid into bed, then stared at the ceiling wondering how I was going to pull this one off. For Tom had enthusiastically roped _Adrien_ into helping prepare the meal that very Sunday – part of his campaign to make me a better cook.

I wondered if it was too much to ask for Lila to reappear before then…


	14. Brunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The Heroes of Paris are forced to get creative when both Adrien and Chat are expected for Sunday Brunch at the Bakery._

“This is _never_ gonna work,” I mewled.

“It will,” Marinette assured me.

From where I was laying, it was hard not to showcase my doubts. The two of us were in the guest bedroom at the Bakery, a smallish space that felt cramped with just one; though I wasn’t opposed to having my girlfriend in such close proximity, the way she was carefully tucking the sheet in around me was accentuating my stress level – and making it nearly impossible to move, too.

“All it would take is one inadvertent decision to check on my welfare,” I tried again, my masked eyes wide. “And if they find Chat Noir here—”

“Stop worrying,” Marinette laughed. “This will work. Just stick to the plan.”

If my tail had been free, it would have been twisting terribly. “You know I trust you implicitly, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded as she pulled the curtain across the large window, plunging the room into darkness.

“And I’d normally jump at any excuse to transform—"

“I know,” she said. I could see her slight smile in the odd gray-green of my night vision.

“—but I still don’t understand _why_ you wanted me to don the mask and ears.”

Sighing as if she were patiently working with a kindergartener, she slid onto the small mattress and sat. “You’ll need those ears of yours—” she tapped a feline one with a finger, which always felt weird to me, “—so you can judge when the coast is clear to escape.” Running that same finger along the edge of my mask, she smiled slightly as she continued. “And you need those masked feline eyes of yours so you can see who it is coming through that door before they see _you_.”

Still not entirely convinced, I decided it best to hold onto my further objections and bit my tongue.

“Remember: I’m going to ‘check’ on you first, and then you need to wait until I get the plates down to set the table. You know what you’re listening for, right?”

I nodded, for as with any of Ladybug’s--er, _Marinette’s_ \-- complicated plans, we had run a test in the wee hours of the morning while her parents were snoozing down the hall from my room. On the one hand, it was pretty cool I could hear the whisper of her sliding a porcelain mug across the tile of the countertop from twenty meters, but on the other, the way Tom snored told me I’d never get _any_ sleep transformed. My very acute hearing made it seem like he was in the same room, making me wonder how Sabine managed to get any shuteye herself.

“I do. And that’s my cue to arrive at the front door,” I nodded, or as much as I could, for she’d truly snugged the sheet about me. Despite her best efforts, a wave of anxiety washed over me. “Tom’s going to check on me, I just know it! He’s been planning this breakfast for days now, and was looking forward to showing me how to make a croissant.” My eyes went wide. “Oh my God! When you give our cover story, Sabine’s going to want to take my temperature---”

“I’ve got it covered,” she smiled. “Truly, I do. Now, sit back and wait.”

“Princess--” I started, only to be silenced by a short, but rather sweet, kiss.

Pulling back, Marinette reached up to re-tie a pigtail. “Better?”

As Chat, I couldn’t help myself. “I might need a second helping--”

The response was immediate, enhanced, perhaps, by a slight scratch behind one feline ear, something that never failed to start the deep rumble of a purr. Marinette sat back again, smiling wider. “There. I think that helped a bit.”

“I’m not in a position to disagree,” I smiled, feeling slightly mollified. But only slightly.

“Good. I’ll be back shortly, kitty,” she said as she stood and quickly slipped out of the room, leaving me alone in the dark.

I had to admit, the weather certainly was assisting us in our sleight of hand, for a front had moved into Paris, swaddling the otherwise brilliant blue horizon in brooding gray clouds and dimming the daylight considerably. Struggling a bit to twist beneath the sheet, I managed to free myself enough to sit up without tearing the fabric with my claws -- something that would be very hard for Adrien to explain later. Marinette’s family had only been my host for a such a short time, and yet, this tiny space had become home for me in a way the massive room at the mansion I’d once enjoyed never truly been. I harbored no illusions that I had means – more than most, if the last set of profit and loss statements from House of Gabriel had been any indication – and yet, I was reasonably certain I’d experienced more joy in that very normal, very ordinary apartment than anything my entire net worth would ever be able to provide. The simple joy of being part of a family – even unofficially – had done more for my wellbeing than any trinket or exotic trip my father had bought for me.

My feline eyes fell on my civilian phone, sitting in the charging dock I’d managed to bring from the mansion before Lila had burned it to the ground; my favorite photos of my mother were arrayed around it on the small desk, and my school tablet was there, too, awaiting my attention for an assignment still to be done for next week. While I missed my computer and, admittedly, the massive flat-screen television, it had become clear to me I had been given a gift far more valuable: love. Love from the girl I’d been head-over-heels for from the moment she’d snared me with her yo-yo, and now, also from this amazing family that had made me one of their own.

I turned my masked visage to the door and smiled sadly, for Tom _had_ been looking forward to teaching me another lesson in cooking; like Chat Noir, he had designs on making Adrien an apprentice in his Bakery. As flattered as I was that he thought so highly of both of my alter-egos, I knew my life was going in a different direction than he would have hoped. But it didn’t hurt to know how to make treats that I was well aware Marinette favored.

A noise in the kitchen had my feline ears pivoting, and I focused for a moment; steps were coming down the short hallway, so I slipped back beneath the sheets and then squeezed my feline eyes as closed as I could without completely restricting my vision. If it were anyone other than Marinette, the slight glow I seemed to have would give away the game in a heartbeat.

The door cracked open. “Adrien?” Marinette called out. “Are you still under the weather?”

“I am,” I said quietly, though no response was strictly necessary. 

I saw my girlfriend smile. “Then you rest up. We’ll put a plate in the oven for you to eat later.”

The door closed and I leapt from the bed, pressing my feline ear to the wood. I could clearly hear Marinette returning to the kitchen and her reporting back. It wasn’t hard to hear Sabine’s somewhat righteous anger that I’d picked up a bug from the set of my most recent photoshoot, nor Tom’s huffing about same.

“The way they work that poor boy,” I clearly heard Sabine cluck. “He’s barely sixteen! How on earth do they justify what they’re doing to him? He works all the time, night and day!”

I smiled slightly, for we’d been leaning a bit on my ostensible duties at House of Gabriel as one excuse for Adrien’s extensive absences from the apartment. Coincidentally, those were generally the same times that Chat appeared at the Bakery – but not always; Marinette and I had been very careful to ensure that Chat’s appearances and Adrien’s disappearances didn’t completely line up. So far, it had worked – save, of course, for that particular Sunday.

My ears shot up as I heard footsteps; from the tread, it _wasn’t_ Marinette.

Leaping smoothly back to the bed, I flipped the sheet over me completely, drawing it up to my chin to hide any possible reflection from my bell; flipping sideways, my feline eyes happened to glance at the top of my dresser. My sunglasses were carefully folded beside the beanie I sometimes wore on the few mornings I’d accidently overslept and hadn’t had the time to get my hair model-perfect; before I had a chance to consider my actions, in a blur of motion I was out of the bed, snagging both the frames and the hat. Flipping back into the bed, I’d barely pulled the beanie over my ears, slid the glasses on and pulled the sheet back over my bell before the door opened a crack.

“Adrien?”

Suspiciously, the light in the hallway had burned out; also fortuitously, the curtain over the window at the end of the hall had somehow been closed, so Sabine was in shadow as she stood at the door. Hoping my narrowed feline eyes were even less visible behind the smoky lenses of my sunglasses, I tried my best woeful voice, careful to pitch it closer to Adrien than Chat.

“Sorry, Madame Dupain-Cheng,” I said just about as miserably as I could. “I guess I crashed after that midnight shoot last night.”

Hovering at the edge of the doorway, I could feel Sabine trying to decide whether she should come further in. “Are you sure you won’t come out for Brunch? Eating something might help.”

“I just need a little more rest,” I replied, throwing in a yawn. “I’m so sorry.”

Sabine started to say something when I heard Marinette approaching. “ _Mom_!” she said, exasperated. “Let him get some sleep! He’s got a huge school project to get done with me this afternoon, and it will go much faster if all of his brain cells are present.”

Still, Sabine paused. “I think—”

“Come _on_ ,” Marinette pleaded, taking her mother by the hand and pulling her out of the room. “Dad needs your help with the merengue, and Chat will be here any _minute_ ,” she continued, a little something in her voice reminding Sabine that _the boyfriend_ would soon arrive. “I need this to be purrfect!”

I had to throw a paw over my mouth to keep from chuckling.

“All right, dear,” Sabine sighed. “But if he’s not feeling better by this afternoon, I’m calling his doctor.”

“Deal.”

The door closed and I was alone once more. Peeling the beanie off, I sat up and slid the glasses onto my wild mane. “That was close,” I said to no one.

A moment later, I heard the telltale scrape of the china on the table and threw back the sheet before leaping to the window. Pulling back the curtain, I slid the massive window open and paused at the edge, smiling to myself.

“And now, we begin,” I said, leaping into the air; twisting, I landed on the fire escape on the building behind and rotated up to the railing. Vaulting upward, I was just starting my big loop to return to the bakery when the phone on my baton buzzed.

Perching on an antenna aerial, I snapped it open and saw the masked face of Spider-Man. “Hey,” I smiled, thinking I’d spoken to him more since he returned to New York this last time than his first visit. “I seem to spend most of my phone calls taking to bugs these days.”

Spidery cocked his head. “You remember that favor you owe me?” he asked without preamble.

The serous tone in his voice wiped the smile from my face and had my ears standing straight up. “What’s wrong?”

“Plenty. How quickly can you get here?”


	15. Catch as Chat Can

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Unexpectedly called to New York, Chat and Ladybug discover Spider-Man dealing with what very much looks like an akuma. But with Hawkmoth in jail, and the moth Miraculous out of commission...._

Marinette met me at the door to the Dupain-Cheng apartment, her smile at my appearance quickly shifting to one of concern with one look at my expression. “What’s wrong?”

I lowered my voice a bit after seeing Tom’s expectant face appear from the corner of the kitchen. “Spidey called. He needs us if we can get to New York.”

True to form, Marinette shifted into Ladybug mode. “How serious?”

“He only sketched in the details, but he’s run across something he thinks might be more up our alley than his,” I replied. “From what he described, it sounded like an akuma.”

My girlfriend’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not possible.”

“Agreed. Which is why he called.”

Marinette looked over her shoulder. “Damn. All right, I need to make some calls so we can have coverage while we’re out of town.” She looked back. “Papa isn’t going to be happy.”

“Neither am I,” I said softly, putting my paws on her shoulders. “We put a ton of effort into making this work today.”

“Well,” she smiled slightly, “I guess we can think of it as a dress rehearsal. Come on, let’s go break the bad news.”

In the end, we went for the truth wrapped in a tiny white lie, for on the whole it wasn’t unusual for Chat Noir to suddenly have to dash off and save the world; while Tom and Sabine were amazingly accommodating, I felt it best not to reveal said emergency was half a world away. Far trickier was extracting Marinette from the Bakery; even with an ostensibly sick Adrien in the guest room, she managed to suddenly recall needing a book that Max mysteriously had in order to complete a pressing homework assignment. Conveniently, she left out the true reason she needed to see our classmate.

Somewhat unusually, Ladybug actually borrowed back the Horse Miraculous from Max and donned the glasses herself; while it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Ladybug merge multiple kwami, we each had done it so rarely that I still found the process fascinating. I’d never forgotten what it felt like to have the combined powers of the snake and cat Miraculous at my disposal and was thankful it tended to be a For Emergency Use Only type of action. That morning, though, Ladybug’s choice was more pragmatic, for we truly had no idea what we were getting into. Having the ability to open a portal to return to Paris without needing to coordinate with Max meant we’d be able to shift plans in a heartbeat should Hawkmoth make an appearance.

If he did, we’d left Rena and Carapace suited up and patrolling the city in our stead, ready to reach out and haul us back from New York. While I hated to leave our best friends in such a position, there was no one better to at the very least keep an eye on the city while we were away that the fox and the turtle.

As the glow of the portal faded behind us, I took a moment to realign my feline brain. With the time change, despite having been getting ready to sit down to a wonderful brunch, it was instead still pre-dawn in New York; the sky to the east was just beginning to glow with the first hint of sunrise, backlighting the tall skyscrapers of Manhattan. Given the urgency of Spider-Man's call, we’d moved blisteringly fast to get the pieces into place so we could get to New York as quickly as possible, but in the early morning quiet, it was hard to find the source of that original urgency.

We’d arrived on a block of brownstones facing the high school I knew Spidey’s alter ego attended; I’d expected to see our webslinger friend waiting for us and was troubled that he appeared to be nowhere to be found. Cracking open my baton, I confirmed I’d not inadvertently missed a phone call from him, and quickly speed-dialed his number. I frowned when it went straight to voicemail.

“This is the spot?” Ladybug asked me. She’d taken a moment to unmerge Kaalki and feed her before letting her sneak into the yo-yo. 

“Yeah. The last two times I’ve come to New York, I met him here. I think his home is close by, but I don’t know exactly where it is.”

Ladybug arched an eyebrow at me. “And yet, he knows your civilian home address.”

I flushed slightly. “True. I’ll correct that next time I see--”

I stopped short, for my feline nose was hit by the strong stench of something acrid burning. Following the scent, my masked eyes focused on the school across the street and finally saw that one wing had been reduced to rubble, a trail of smoke snaking its way toward the skyline. Extended my baton, I heaved myself into the air, soaring over the quiet street so I could land on an angled piece of concrete. Ladybug had followed my lead and gently dropped in beside me. The smoke was thicker to one corner of the rubble, and from time to time I could see a slight flash of some sort of electrical short, possibly the cause of the fire that I couldn’t _directly_ see, but definitely could smell.

Intuitively, I understood why Spider-Man was missing; glancing to Ladybug, I could already see she was on the same wavelength, for she’d already knelt on the concrete, holding her yo-yo flashlight up high enough to scan the debris. “Spidey?” she called out. “Spider-Man?”

I leapt away from her and landed a few meters further into the debris, closer to the billowing smoke. There was a slight crevice, partially illuminated with each flash of the blue-white light from whatever was sparking below. Tamping back my distaste for small spaces, I threw myself into the opening, and started to crawl among the irregular-shaped pieces of building; at some points, the space was cramped enough the metallic accents at my shoulders scraped the ceiling in a most unsettling way. My night vision wasn’t as helpful as normal, what with the constant flare-up from whatever I was getting uncomfortably close to; still, it worked _enough_ to keep me from getting impaled on the random pointy objects that appeared to litter my extremely narrow pathway toward... what, exactly?

It had been a long time since I’d let my feline intuition completely rule the day, but as I finally approached a slightly larger opening in the debris and squeezed myself through it, I knew I’d made the right call; as I plopped down into what must have originally been a basement area for the school, my feline night vision immediately locked onto a masked figure leaning against the far wall. The space was tiny – maybe fifty meters by twenty and littered with massive pieces of concrete that had tumbled from above, which made my progress toward the fallen webslinger slow. It didn’t help that the source of the arcing electrical short was about six meters away from where he was slumped, forcing me to throw a paw up to my eyes against the brilliant flash of light every few seconds.

Finally reaching his side, it was clear despite the mask that Spidey was unconscious; his head had lolled to the side, and his arms were akimbo, telling the story that he’d likely been thrown forcibly into the wall he was slumped against – hard enough, even, that he’d left a Spider-Man-shaped dent in the concrete. I pressed a finger to his neck, searching for a pulse; even though I had complete tactile sensation with my transformation, the fabric from his costume made it hard for me to locate his carotid artery. Given I was short one _Star Trek_ -style tricorder, I hunted for and located the invisible seam where his mask tucked into the neck of his costume and hooked a claw beneath it so I could pull it off.

And gasped, despite myself.

It was clear Spidey had been in another battle, and on the losing end, too; much like our endgame with Mayura, he was bruised rather badly, with one eye nearly swollen shut and a slight kink to his nose that complemented the trail of blood from a nostril. Pressing my gloved finger to his neck once more, I finally found his pulse. It was strong, if not slower than I would have liked; prying open his good eye, the pupil responded by dilating in a flash of light from the still-arcing whatever behind me, telling me he’d not stroked out. Quickly, I took in the rest of his body and finally saw the slashes along his side where the fabric – and a healthy amount of skin beneath – had been torn away, though the bleeding didn’t appear to be more than superficial. Whatever had caused it seemed to have been more of a close shave, thankfully; I couldn’t find anything broken, but that didn’t mean the rest of his body was as black-and-blue as his face.

I snapped open my baton and then twisted it to have the earwig drop out; stuffing it into my human ear, the communications channel I shared with Ladybug immediately crackled to life. “Is he down there?” she asked.

“Yes, and rather battered. He’s alive, but kwami knows how. He took on something brutal.”

“That opening you went through looks too small to get him back out,” she said.

“I’m open for options,” I replied. “I think I’m in the basement of the school. What’s on the other side of the wall on the eastern corner?”

“Hang on, I’ll get over there.”

As I waited for Ladybug, I carefully pulled the mask back over Spidey’s civilian visage; if I managed to get him out of there, I still needed to protect his identity. Sitting back on my haunches, I felt a cough rumbling up from deep in my chest and realized the air in that space was getting rather foul. 

_Figures,_ I thought as I scanned what I could see of the walls with my night vision. _The one time having a window would come in handy—_

_Oh, damn._

“Ladybug, open a portal,” I said quickly. “But do it from the rooftop across the way.”

My partner swore. “I never even thought of that. Two seconds---”

I nodded, not that she could see it, and leaned down to get my arms around Spider-Man; one careful heave, and I had him over my shoulder and was just turning around when the portal sparkled into being in front of me. One leap and I was in the relatively clean air atop our original rooftop, where I very slowly slid Spider-Man onto the tile. Somewhat encouragingly, he groaned a bit as I tried to sit him up against a pony wall.

Ladybug dropped to her knees beside me, her strange combo costume picking up the limited light. “We need to get him to a hospital,” she said. “Let me recharge—”

“No---” came a strangled gasp. Groaning with the effort, Spider-Man managed to push himself up further, then rolled the bottom of his mask to a point just high enough he could twist sideways and vomit.

I moved to his side immediately, and Ladybug went to the other. “Dude,” I said as he heaved a second time. “We need someone to take a look at you. Clearly you went up against a dump truck. And the dump truck won.”

“It wasn’t much more glamourous than that,” he replied as he sagged against the wall, pulling his mask back into place. “Sorry,” he apologized. His masked face turned slightly toward Ladybug. “Those are some cool shades.”

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Look, Chat’s right – we need to get you to an emergency room.”

“I can’t go – not as Spider-Man and _definitely_ not as my alter-ego. My aunt would kill me.”

I looked at Ladybug. “Paris?”

“He’ll be missed here,” she reminded me. “But that might be best. Let me recharge.”

“I can’t go to Paris!” Spidey objected. “We’ve got to deal with whatever that thing is now. _Here_.”

“We can’t do _anything_ if you’re not in a position to help us,” I said. “Look, give me your home address. I’ll talk to your aunt and tell her we need you in Paris for something. Maybe I can convince her I’m from—”

“No,” Spidey said flatly. “So far, I’ve managed to keep her out of all of this superhero stuff.”

“Then Paris it is,” I said. “You can text her that you got called in for something at Stark—”

“ _No!_ ” Spidey thundered – or, at least as much as he could, given his current condition. “I can’t leave New York!”

“Maybe we don’t need to,” Ladybug interjected.

I caught the thoughtful expression on my partner’s face. “I’ve seen _that_ look before.”

“Yes.” She stepped to the edge of the roof, pulled her yo-yo out, and tossed it up into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she cried.

“Milady—” I started, only to watch with growing amazement when her million little helpers burst into being and swarmed around us; Spider-Man was nearly cocooned for a full minute before they rushed off to the crumbled school, which was restored to its original Brutalist glory in a heartbeat.

Spidey gasped and sat up straight. “Holy cow!”

“Feeling better?” I asked.

“A little achy, but yeah.” He tapped his nose gingerly with a gloved finger. “Much better.”

I stood slowly as the light faded, masked eyes wide. “Milady,” I said to my partner. “That only works when there is an akuma involved. And last I checked, the Moth Miraculous had been disabled.”

“I know,” she said softly.

“What the _hell_ does this mean?”

“ _That_ is the question of the hour.”


End file.
